Dionaa Muscipula, I : . I lis. 25 



at 9.10 next day the end part of the half on whieh it was had 

 slightly inflected, exactly as in a like case recorded by Dar- 

 win (p. 297). Secretion had gone on in the region next to it, 

 and gradual digestion and absorption proceeded for five days 

 till scarcely a trace of it remained. On the other two leaves 

 pieces about three times as large were placed, and both had 

 closed by 4.30 p.m., and remained thus till digestion was 

 accomplished. But wetted pieces of meat have repeatedly 

 been placed on leaves, and have failed to set up closure, while 

 on three occasions, leaves with meat, that were artificially 

 closed, did not tighten up, but continued to show the digesting 

 meat between the bristles. 



Meat, therefore, we view as a decidedly weak stimulant, 

 and it appears likely that were a careful and exhaustive set of 

 experiments conducted with shreds of varying size a toler- 

 ably close approximation as to the amount of a given kind of 

 meat necessary to effect complete closure could be arrived at. 



Mainly with the object in view, of trying to get an unaltered 

 leaf for microscopic study, one attached to a living plant was 

 dipped into a one per cent, solution of chromic acid and re- 

 mained unaltered for ten minutes. It was then carefully cut 

 off and dropped into the liquid, where it showed no sign of 

 closing for two hours ; when looked at, however, after two 

 and a half hours it had closed. This behavior seemed so re- 

 markable that the experiment was repeated on several occa- 

 sions, and with the same result ; but the time between 

 immersion and closure varied from one to two and a half 

 hours. But the writer had forgotten at the time the behavior 

 of some tadpoles which he placed a few years ago in the same 

 strength of solution under the supposition that they would 

 speedily die. On returning to the jar about one and a half 

 hours after he was horrified to find the animals still alive and 

 wriggling about. Several gentlemen have had like experi- 

 ences. 



A leaf was immersed in a one per cent, solution of chromic 

 acid, and after five minutes cut off and allowed to lie in the 

 solution for thirty minutes. It was then passed into a twenty- 

 five per cent, alcohol solution and at stages lasting over an 



