CHAP. XIV. ALUROVANDA VESICULOSA. 329 



boiled in caustic potash ; so that it must have been 

 enclosed for a considerable time. The glands were 

 browner and more opaque than those on other leaves 

 which had caught nothing; and the quadrifid pro- 

 cesses, from being partly filled with brown granular 

 vmtter, could be plainly distinguished, which was not 

 the case, as already stated, on the other leaves. Some 

 of the points on the infolded margins likewise con- 

 tained brownish granular matter. We thus gain 

 additional evidence that the glands, the quadrifid pro- 

 cesses, and the marginal points, all have the power of 

 absorbing matter, though probably of a different 

 nature. 



Within another leaf disintegrated remnants of a 

 rather small animal, not a crustacean, which had 

 simple, strong, opaque mandibles, and a large unarti- 

 culated chitinous coat, were present. Lumps of black 

 organic matter, possibly of a vegetable nature, were 

 enclosed in two other leaves ; but in one of these 

 there was also a small worm much decaved. But the 



* 



nature of partially digested and decayed bodies, which 

 have been pressed flat, long dried, and then soaked in 

 water, cannot be recognised easily. All the leaves 

 contained unicellular and other Algse, still of a green- 

 ish colour, which had evidently lived as intruders, in 

 the same manner as occurs, according to Cohn, within 

 the leaves of this plant in Germany. 



Aldrovanda vesiculosa, var. verticillata. Dr. King, 

 Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, kindly sent 

 me dried specimens collected near Calcutta. This 

 form was, I believe, considered by Wallich as a distinct 

 species, under the name of verticillata. It resembles 

 the Australian form much more nearly than the Euro- 

 pean ; namely in the projections at the upper end of 

 the petiole being much attenuated and covered with 



