372 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



from those of animal nutrition, and involve very simple com- 

 pounds, yet that the protoplasm of plants is not absolutely pro- 

 hibited from availing itself of food, such as that by which the 

 protoplasm of animals is nourished ; under which point of view 

 these phenomena of carnivorous plants will find their place, as 

 one more link in the continuity of nature. 



Note on Carnivorous Plants. — Mr. Andrew Murray 

 writes to the Gardener's Chronicle that he has, within the last 

 few weeks, made some observations at the Ochil Hills, Kinross- 

 shire, on Pinguicula and Drosera, with reference to the fly- 

 digesting powers they are asserted to possess. He states that 

 he found the leaves of Pinguicula close, quite independently of 

 a fly being in them or not. " The leaves are found with 

 their margins in all stages of curling over, some with no insect 

 on them much more curled over than others with several." The 

 secretion which Dr. Hooker states kills a captured insect, he 

 finds is glutinous, and he believes it does not fall on to the in- 

 sect, but that death results from the secretion adhering to and 

 closing up the spiracles by which the insect breathes. With 

 regard to Dioncea he suggests that it should be carefully noted 

 (1) whether the secretion is never present until after an insect 

 has been captured ; (2) whether it is always present after one 

 has. — Nature. 



Published November 10th, 1874. 



