The Power of Movement in Plants

As it was one of his last books, followed only by the publication of The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, he was assisted by his son Francis in conducting the necessary experiments and preparing the manuscript.

These studies on plants were first evidenced in 'On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects’ (1862), the publication that immediately followed On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection.

At times, Darwin despaired of ever finishing the work, as the book outgrew his original expectations: As the book neared completion, he summarised its underlying viewpoint: The work concerns itself with how plants respond to external stimuli and examines these processes in individual plants to gain understanding of some general principles governing their growth and life.

In his conclusions, Darwin presents the key features of plants from an evolutionary perspective indicating that gradual modification of these processes in response to natural selective forces like light and water could enable extensive ability to adapt.

Darwin used various methods of enquiry: usually setting up rigorous controlled experiments which are clearly explained in the text, reporting the results and then drawing general conclusions.