CALCIUM AND OTHER POLYVALENT CATIONS AS ACCELERATORS OF ION ACCUMULATION BY EXCISED BARLEY ROOTS

Abstract

The effects of one ion on the absorption of another has merited the attention of physiologists for almost a century. The investigations in this field (15), however, have usually been concerned with the analysis of plants grown in different media or with plants or cells subjected for short periods generally to high concentrations of salts with little regard for the metabolism of the tissue. Growth experiments are so complicated by secondary factors that they are of little value in the study of the primary phases of absorption. Short term experiments with inactive tissues and high concentrations of salt (passive absorption) have led to the theory of antagonism between mono- valent and divalent cations.