User:Leticia Boni/sandbox

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During the 20th century, there was a vast increase in research regarding botany. This derived from the new technologies acquired as well as the better facilities available and increased number of botanists interested in expanding this scientific field. The increase in research resulted in new discoveries, new concepts and new fields of botanical studies known as disciplines. These are morphology, physiology, ecology and systematics. Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose (1858-1937) was among the earliest and most esteemed pioneers of plant physiology in the early 1900s. His investigation on plant-response started with the discovery of the electric response of non-living matter which was published in 1900 by the International Congress of Science in Paris. Investigations on living matter indicated that physico-chemical reactions were responsible for their responses. ‘Response of the Living and Non-Living’ published in 1902, revealed that every plant and every plant organ is excitable and responds to stimulus by electric response. Furthermore, ‘Plant Response as a means of physiological investigation’ published in 1906, proved, through the use of a method of mechanical response, that the conduction of excitation of a plant is the same as the one occurring in the nerves of animals. In 1907, ‘Comparative Electro-Physiology’ was published and provided, through an independent method of electric response, the same results acquired from the method of mechanical response. Additionally, in ‘Researchers on Irritability of Plants’ (1913) a new device of resonant recorder was introduced which created accurate measurements of the velocity of transmissions of nervous impulse. Bose created this device to be able to demonstrate that the reason why the leaves of the Mimosa plant fall, when the plant is stimulated, is because an electrical signal travels through the stem. The results acquired from this device provided further evidence for his work on nerve impulses in plants. Other relevant books include "Physiology of the Ascent of Sap" published in 1923 and "The physiology of photosynthesis" published in 1924.

The book ‘The nervous mechanism of plants’, published in 1926, gives a connected account of the results of the authors’ previous publications as well as the introduction of new materials on sensory and motor impulses. In the 1900s the advance of knowledge in plant-physiology was paralysed and therefore no sensitive and accurate methods were introduced. This state of lack of knowledge inspired the author to create ‘The nervous mechanism of plants’. The aim of the work was to materially advance the knowledge of nervous impulse in general with the realisation that the physiological mechanism of a plant is identical to that of the animal. On account of this work, among others, plant physiology studies made considerable progress in linking electrical signals with pollination, phloem transport, plant defenses and, respiration and photosynthesis.