Francis E. Lloyd — 172 — Carnivorous Plants 



This organism was studied later also by Mirande and by Gickl- 

 HORN. The former generally verified Sommerstorff's observations. 

 He observed, also, the capture of Stylonychia and of other organisms 

 than armoured Rotatoria, which have the same manner of feeding. 

 By staining he thought to have identified a substance in the short 

 h}phae capable of quick swelling. 



GiCKLHORN however paid closer attention to the contents of the 

 short hyphae, the organs of capture. By means of staining and solu- 

 bility tests he came to the conclusion that an oval glistening body, 

 observable in the short hyphae, is a discrete body of callose capable 

 of great swelling. It is always present in organs ready for capture 

 as a definite plug. In unstimulated branchlets it is always on the 

 inside; on stimulated ones it occurs as a mucilaginous cap. Dead 

 organs are always free of the mucilage and are cut off from the bear- 

 ing hypha by a partition. After a short time following capture (lo- 

 30 minutes) the callus plug is emptied into the maw of the prey and 

 spreads out entangling the whole of its ciliary mouth apparatus. 

 There is no further discharge of mucilage after the expulsion of the 

 one shot. These results were indeed foreshadowed by Sommerstorff, 

 but not proven. His suggestion that the mucilage was provided by 

 the swelling of the outer membrane Gicklhorn could not verify. 

 GiCKLHORN on the other hand failed to show how the callus plug 

 makes its escape, since no pore or other point of exudation could be 

 observed (Text fig. 4A, b). 



Gicklhorn studied the mode of capture and its sequelae, confirm- 

 ing and amplifying such observations as had been made by Sommer- 

 storff. He observed in freshly caught animals which had succeeded 

 in escaping that the ciliary apparatus was in a swollen condition. 

 He asserts that only certain sorts of Rotatoria are caught {Colurus, 

 Distyla, Metopidia, Monostyla, Salpina and Squalella species) and 

 never those which are supplied with a strong ciliary apparatus, such 

 as Brachionus, Noteus, Anuria, Rotifer and Philodina, all of which 

 were subjected to experimental observation. He was unable to ob- 

 serve that infusoria such as Stylonychia, Stentor, Paramaecium and the 

 flagellates Euglena and Paranema were ever caught. This fact, which 

 he held to be such, indicates at once that not only is the plant a 

 capturing one but that the animal must be capturable. He admits 

 observing some infusoria "caught", but they were stuck to the catch- 

 ing organs, and this does not prove that they were properly caught 

 in the manner of Rotatoria. He concludes that instead of speaking 

 of the animal as being caught one should say that it gets itself caught, 

 since only those armoured Rotatoria which are able to swallow the bait 

 can be caught. In a culture with many animals the process was 

 followed and this account is given. If an animal hits against the 

 main hypha or against a short hypha sideways, these bend a little 

 under the impact and then recover. The animal, on hitting, infolds 

 its ciliary apparatus; if, however, it approaches a short hypha, the 

 trapping organ, end on, so that it enters the ciliary apparatus, the 

 latter immediately clamps down on it and draws it in. This is done 

 repeatedly for 5-10 minutes during which interval repeated attempts 

 are made by the ciliary apparatus to open, only to clamp down again 



