That not a "Mimosa" alone, but all plants are sensitive was demonstrated
by some striking experiments. A spiral tendril, under electric shock was
shown to writhe imitating the contortions of a tortured worm. In
ordinary plants, all sides being equally sensitive contraction takes
place on all directions with resulting neutral effect. Another striking
experiment was to show how ordinary plants could be made sensitive by
the mere process of amputation of the balancing half? Further
experiments were shown demonstrating the effects of light, of warmth and
other stimuli on the plant. Warmth worked antagonistically to light. The
numerous permutations brought about by two changing variations were
shown by a mechanical hand, which traced most complicated curves. In
actual life the number of changing factors are very numerous, hence the
intricacy involved in the manifestations of life.
The experiments that have been shown will help the audience to realise
in some measure that the world we live in is not a theatre of caprice or
chance, but that an all pervading law holds and regulates its destiny.
We have seen that the vast expanse of life which is unvoiced, seemingly,
so impassive, is instinct with sensibility. Thus the whole of the
vegetable world, including rigid trees perceive the changes in their
environment and respond to them by unmistakable signals. They thrill
under light and become depressed by darkness; the warmth of summer and
frost of winter, drought and rain, these and many other happenings
leave a subtle impression on the life of the plant. By invention of
apparatus of extreme delicacy, it is possible to make the plant itself
write down the history of its own experience in a hieroglyphic which it
is possible to decipher. From these pages, taken from the diary of the
plant, it will perhaps be possible some day to get an insight into the
great mystery that surrounds life itself. For I shall in the course of
lectures given here show how the life of plants is a mere reflection of
our own. I shall show how shocks and wounds affect them as they affect
animals; how a common death-throb marks the crisis when life passes into
death. The exuberance of life, on the other hand, will be shown by
pulsing throbs of animal's heart and spontaneous beat in vegetal
tissues. Another aspect of this exuberance will be shown in the
imperceptible growth of plants. My recently invented Crescograph, to be
exhibited at my lecture a fortnight hence, will magnify growth a
million-fold and record ultra microscopic movements, smaller than a
single wave length of light. By this apparatus growth will be
instantaneously recorded and conditions which foster or inhibit growth
discriminated. I shall demonstrate my discovery of the nervous system in
plants, and show how shocks from without pass within, and how this
nervous impulse modified during transit. It will further be shown how
various stimulants, anesthetics and poison induce effects which are
identical in man and in plant. It will be obvious how these studies
will open new fields of inquiry in different branches of science; in
Physiology and Psychology; in Medicine and in Agriculture.
--_Amrita Bazar Patrika_, 7-1-1918.