Cuar. X.] CONDUCTING TISSUES. 201 
two chief branches of the lateral bundle. The course of the 
vessels is very complex at the larger inosculation ; and here 
vessels, retaining the same diameter, are often formed by the 
union of the bluntly pointed ends of two vessels, but whether 
these points open into each other by their attached surfaces, 
I do not know. By means of the two inosculations all the 
vessels on the same side of the leaf are brought into some sort 
of connection. Near the circumference of the larger leaves 
the bifurcating branches also come into close union, and then 
separate again, forming a continuous zigzag line of vessels 
round the whole circumfer- 
ence. But the union of the 
vessels in this zigzag line 
seems to be much less inti- 
mate than at the main in- 
osculation. It should be 
added that the course of the 
vessels differs somewhat in 
different leaves, and even on 
opposite sides of the same 
leaf, but the main inoscula- 
tion is always present. 
Now in my first experi- 
ments with bits of meat 
placed on one side of the disc, 
it so happened that not a 
single tentacle was inflected 
on the opposite side; and 
when I saw that the vessels 
on the same side were all 
connected together by the 
two inosculations, whilst not Diagram showing the distribution of the 
vascular tissue in a small leaf, 
a vessel passed over to the 
opposite side, it seemed pro- - 
bable that the motor impulse was conducted exclusively 
along them. 
In order to test this view, I divided transversely with the 
point of a lancet the central trunks of four leaves, just 
beneath the main bifurcation; and two days afterwards 
placed rather large bits of raw meat (a most powerful 
stimulant) near the centre of the discs above the incision— 
that is, a little towards the apex—with the following 
results :— 
Fic. 11, 
(Drosera rotundifolia.) 
