The influence of external concentration on the position of the equilibrium attained in the intake of salts by plant cells

Abstract

The intake and translocation of dissolved substances in the living plant present one of the outstanding problems of the physiology of nutrition, and one which has for a long time attracted the attention of plant physiologists. We know the metallic or ash constituents of the plant are taken in by the root in the form of salts, and eventually find their way, in some form or another, to every part of the organism. What is the mechanism of their intake and of their translocation from cell to cell ? Can the movement be explained as a simple diffusion phenomenon, or are adsorption phenomena concerned, or chemical combinations, or is the process still more complex ? The work recorded in this paper forms a first instalment of an attempted analysis of these phenomena of the intake and movement of salts in the living plant.