86 NEW SPECIES OF PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS. 



to penetrate the epideimis of the stalk, as only the small, not red, 

 hairs on its surface are immediately affected. A similar inclination 

 of the hairs occurs when an alkali is brought upon the surface of the 

 leaf. 



If a living insect settles on the leaf, the mucus will adhere to its 

 body and be mostly disentangled from the glands. It is thus in no 

 way sui-prising that insects cause the hairs to converge. But what is 

 the effect of a dead insect or a bit of raw meat ? If you take a little 

 slice from the middle of a larger piece of fresh meat and place it im- 

 mediately on a \eai of Droser a on a warm day in summer, after an hour 

 or less you will see that the hairs have converged around it. On ex- 

 amining the meat and the hairs with the microscope you will find 

 that a numerous swarm of Bacteria are already present ; the meat has 

 begun to decompose. During the putrefaction ammonia is formed, 

 and it is not surprising that the cells in the knob and upper part of 

 the stalk are already influenced. If, however, the meat be previously 

 placed in "Aseptin or Amycos Aseptin " to impede putrefaction, it 

 remains unaltered and the hairs do not converge. That the meat 

 mostly disappears when it becomes rotten, is not very surprising, 

 the Bacteria consume it ; but that the leaf has absorbed it through 

 the cells of the glands, Avhose contents are contracted and dead, must 

 be considered to be out of the question. 



If the stalk of the gland be touched repeatedly, it will no longer 

 become deflexed. Substances that do not chemically affect it (e.^., a 

 piece of stone or india-rubber) cause no movement. Treated with 

 hydrochloric acid the hairs do not lose their power, on the contrary 

 some of them con^ erge immediately. So they do if they are treated 

 with a drying substance — e.ff., a concentrated solution of Gum Arabic. 

 If the glands are cut away and their stalks left, these latter will not 

 incline, but the red colour in the cells that are injured by the knife 

 will change. 



The author has measured the cells in the stalk before and after its 

 deflexion without being so fortunate as to find the causes of the pheno- 

 menon, but he supposes one cause to be that the spiral vessels usually 

 if not always lie nearer to the inner side of the stalk. 



[From the " Botaniska Notiser," Sept, 1873.] 



NEW SPECIES OF PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS IN PERIO- 

 DICALS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN DURING THE 

 YEAR 1874. 



The following alphabetical list includes those new genera and 

 species which have been published in 1874 in the following perio- 

 dicals : — "Botanical Magazine," *' Gardeners' Chronicle," ''Journal 

 of Botany," and " Journal of the Linuean Society." The numerous 

 new species in Mr. Miers' " Monograph of the Lec?/thidacece,^^ and Prof. 

 Reichenbach's '' Enumeration of the Orchids collected by Mr. Parish 

 at Moulmein," both published during the year in the '' Transactions 

 of the Linnean Society '" (vol. xxx.), have not been included. 



