132 



UTRICULARIA MONTANA. 



CHAP. 3 VIII. 



hereafter be described. These rhizomes appear ex- 

 actly like roots, but occasionally throw up green 

 shoots. They penetrate the earth sometimes to the 

 depth of more than 2 inches ; but when the plant 

 grows as an epiphyte, they must creep amidst the 

 mosses, roots, decayed bark, &c., with which the trees 

 of these countries are thickly covered. 



As the bladders are attached to the rhizomes, they 

 are necessarily subterranean. They are produced in 

 extraordinary numbers. One of my plants, though 

 young, must have borne several hundreds ; for a single 

 branch out of an entangled mass had thirty-two, and 

 another branch, about 2 inches in length (but with its 

 end and one side branch broken off), had seventy-three 

 bladders.* The bladders are compressed and rounded, 

 with the ventral surface, or that between the summit 

 of the long delicate footstalk and valve, extremely 

 short (fig. 27). They are colourless and almost as 

 transparent as glass, so that they appear smaller than 

 they really are, the largest being under the -^ of an 

 inch (1'27 mm.) in its longer diameter. They are 

 formed of rather large angular cells, at the junctions 

 of which oblong papillae project, corresponding with 

 those on the surfaces of the bladders of the previous 

 species. Similar papilla? abound on the rhizomes, and 

 even on the entire leaves, but they are rather broader 

 on the latter. Vessels, marked with parallel bars 

 instead of by a spiral line, run up the footstalks, and 



* Prof. Oliver has figured a 

 plant of Utricularia Jamesoniana 



(' Proc. Linn. Soc.' vol. iv. p. 

 having entire leaves and rhizomes, 

 like those of our present species ; 

 but the margins of the terminal 

 halves of some of the leaves are 

 converted into bladders. This fact 



clearly indicates that the bladders 

 on the rhizomes of the present and 

 following species are modified seg- 

 ments of the leaf; and they are 

 thus brought into accordance with 

 the bladders attached to the di- 

 vided and floating leaves of the 

 aquatic species. 



