BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 353 



Vol. V, ft©. 23. Washington, 1>. C. Sept. 13, iss.i. 



118.-PISCITOBOI78 PJLANTS.' 

 By E. IIALPJ2l€INE. 



The so-called carnivorous plants for some years, especially since 

 Charles Darwini made his interesting researches, have attracted the 



attention of naturalists, not only on account of the curious phenomenon 

 itself, but more particularly because of the philosophical conclusion 

 which may be drawn from it. 



It is known that the ordinary plants draw from the soil by means of 

 their roots the nutritive inorganic elements which they need, and ab- 

 sorb by means of their leaves and stems the carbonic acid of the at mos- 

 phere. It has thus been said that the plants play the part of interme- 

 diate working agents, transforming inorganic matter into organic ele- 

 ments such as alone can serve as food for beings belonging to the ani- 

 mal kingdom. 



Although it was already known that nitrogenous manures or fertil- 

 izers of an organic nature were just as indispensable for the formation 

 of plants, botanists were nevertheless surprised to learn that in car- 

 nivorous plants the absorption of organic elements was no longer 

 going on as usual by means of their roots alone, but also by their leaves, 

 which are more or less adapted to these new functions, secreting a gen- 

 uine gastric juice, and transforming organic matter by a chemical proc- 

 ess identical with the digestion of animals 



In fact all the experience, and the facts observed by Charles Darwin 

 aud his son Francis, by Hooker,f F. Cohn,§ Mrs. Treat, of New .Jersey, 

 and many other naturalists, prove sufficiently the tact of animal di- 

 gestion by the leaves in these plants, particularly in Dioncea muscipula, 

 and in different kinds of the RossoH* or Drosera. Many other plants, 

 like the Aldrovanda, Dresophyllum^the Pwiguicula, and the Utricularia, 

 of which we shall have to speak specially, have also been mentioned ;is 

 carnivorous plants. Professor Hooker adds the Nepenthes, and Drs. 

 Mellichamp and Canby also class among them the 8arracenia and the 

 Darlingionia. It should be observed, however, that these last two 

 kinds, as well as the Utrieularia, cannot, properly speaking, digest ni- 

 trogenous matter. They simply absorb the products of the decompo- 



*"Plante8j?iscivore8." From La Nature, No. 6 s, July 11, 18d5. Translated 



from the French by Herman Jacobsox. 



t Insectivorous Plants. 



$ J. D. Hooker: Address fco the department of zoology and botany of the British 

 Association. Belfast, August 21, 1- 



§ F. Colin: Beitriujc zur iriologie der Pflamen. Part III, Breslau, 1 - 



Bull. U. S. F. C, 85 23 



