Cuar. XV.] ABSORPTION. 273 
on which a bit of albumen had been placed. The three 
glands to which a minute drop of a solution of nitrate of 
ammonia was distributed, and which became dry after 2 hrs., 
were beginning to re-secrete after only 12 additional hours. 
Tentacles Incapable of Movement.—Many of the tall ten- 
tacles, with insects adhering to them, were carefully ob- 
served ; and fragments of insects, bits of raw meat, albumen, 
&c., drops of a solution of two salts of ammonia and of 
saliva, were placed on the glands of many tentacles; but 
not a trace of movement could ever be detected. I also 
repeatedly irritated the glands with a needle, and scratched 
and pricked the blades, but neither the blade nor the 
tentacles became at all inflected. We may therefore con- 
clude that they are incapable of movement. 
On the Power of Absorption possessed by the Glands.—It has 
already been indirectly shown that the glands on pedicels 
absorb animal matter; and this is further shown by their 
changed colour, and by the aggregation of their contents, 
after they have been left in contact with nitrogenous 
substances or liquids. The following observations apply 
both to the glands supported on pedicels and to the minute 
sessile ones. Before a gland has been in any way stimu- 
lated, the exterior cells commonly contain only limpid purple 
fluid; the more central ones including mulberry-like masses 
of purple granular matter. A leaf was placed in a little 
solution of one part of carbonate of ammonia to 146 of water 
(3 grs. to 1 oz.), and the glands were instantly darkened 
and very soon became black; this change being due to the 
strongly marked aggregation of their contents, more especially 
of the inner cells. Another leaf was placed in a solution of 
the same strength of nitrate of ammonia, and the glands 
were slightly darkened in 25 m., more so in 50 m., and after 
1 hr. 30 m. were of so dark a red as to appear almost black. 
Other leaves were placed in a weak infusion of raw meat 
and in human saliva, and the glands were much darkened 
in 25 m., and after 40 m. were so dark as almost to deserve 
to be called black. Even immersion for a whole day in 
distilled water occasionally induces some aggregation within 
the glands, so that they become of a darker tint. In all 
these cases the glands are affected in exactly the same 
manner as those of Drosera. Milk, however, which 
acts so energetically on Drosera, seems rather less effective 
on Drosophyllum, for the glands were only slightly 
T 
