a BLADDERWORTS. 
In the youth of the plant they are full of mucus heavier than water, and 
the plant, weighed down by them, remains at the bottom. Towards 
the season of flowering, the leaves secrete a gas which enters the utricles, 
and drives out the mucus, opening the lid for its escape. The plant 
is thus supplied with a quantity of air-vessels, which elevate it 
gradually, and cause it to float on the surface. The process of 
flowering takes place in the free air ; and when it is finished, the 
leaves again secrete mucus which replaces the air in the utricles, weighs 
down the plant, and causes it to descend again to the bottom of the 
water, where tt ripens its seeds in the situation in which they should be 
sown.” 
Ithink, if anyone will take the trouble to observe for themselves, 
they will find that the sentences in italics do not describe very 
accurately what really takes place. I cannot say certainly that 
the plant never produces seed, or that that seed never germinates 
at the bottom of the water, ‘in the situation in which it should be 
sown”’; but it seems very unlikely that the seeds should germinate 
in the mud, when at every other period they have no roots at all, 
nor any connexion with the soil. There are many years, too, in 
which the plant never flowers, and yet it will be quite as plentiful 
the next season; and Iam quite sure that in the majority of cases 
it is propagated, not from seed, but from the terminal buds, which 
remain dormant during the winter. These buds have been 
noticed by some authors. 
The branches of Utricularia grow rapidly atthe point, and as 
each delicate leaf unfolds, the bladders, at first quite small, will 
be found at once filled with air. The lower part of the plant is 
constantly decaying away, and as the bladders are only composed 
of a thin membrane, they decay even sooner than the rest of the 
leaf, so that the lower discoloured leaves often look as if they had 
never supported bladders, and may easily be mistaken for roots. 
Thus the plant constantly increases at one end and dies at the 
other till the time of flowering, which is in July and August. In 
all probability the seeds are ripened sufficiently to germinate 
whilst they are exposed to the action of the sun. After flowering 
the plant ceases to grow, either on account of the increasing cold- 
