311 DARWINIANA. 



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The operation of this fly-catching apparatus, in 

 any case, is plain. If the insect alights upon the disk 

 of the leaf, the viscid secretion holds it fast — at least, 

 an ordinary fly is unable to escape — its struggles only 

 increase the number of glands involved and the 

 amount of excitement ; this is telegraphed to the sur- 

 rounding and successively longer tentacles, which 

 bend over in succession, so that within ten to thirty 

 hours, if the leaf is active and the fly large enough, 

 every one of the glands (on the average, nearly two 

 hundred in number) will be found applied to the body 

 of the insect. If the insect is small, and the lodg- 

 ment toward one side, only the neighboring tentacles 

 may take part in the capture. If two or three of 

 the strong marginal tentacles are first encountered, 

 their prompt inflection carries the intruder to the 

 centre, and presses it down upon the glands which 

 thickly pave the floor; these notify all the surrounding 

 tentacles of the capture, that they may share the 

 spoil, and the fate of that victim is even as of the first. 

 A bit of meat or a crushed insect is treated in the 

 same way. 



This language implies that the animal matter is in 

 some way or other discerned by the tentacles, and is 

 appropriated. Formerly there was only a presump- 

 tion of this, on the general ground that such an organ- 

 ization could hardly be purposeless. Yet, while such 

 expressions were natural, if not unavoidable, they 

 generally were used by those familiar with the facts 

 in a half -serious, half -metaphorical sense. Thanks to 

 Mr. Darwin's investigations, they may now be used in 

 simplicity and seriousness. 



