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Perhaps there is something about the geotropic, burrowing urge that betrays a kind of deep-seated introspection – a desire to dig, to escape further from reality, to withdraw into a private fantasy world.

Returning to pure science, no phenomena in plant life are so extremely varied or have yet been more incapable of generalisation than the "tropic" movements, such as the twining of tendrils, the heliotropic movements of some towards and of others away from light, and the opposite geotropic movements of the root and shoot, in the direction of gravitation or away from it.

We had previously tried hundreds of unmutilated radicles under similar circumstances, and found that every one that was healthy became plainly geotropic in under 12 h.

We may therefore conclude that grease on the tips of the radicles of this Phaseolus somewhat delays and lessens the geotropic curvature of the part which ought to bend most.

Cucurbita ovifera.—A large number of trials proved almost useless, from the three following causes: Firstly, the tips of radicles which have grown somewhat old are only feebly geotropic if kept in damp air; nor did we succeed well in our experiments, until the germinating seeds were placed in peat and kept at a rather high temperature.