34 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. • 



inflecting the tentacles. Nor was the treatment of 

 solids less remarkable. " Minute flies were placed 

 on the discs of several leaves, and on others balls of 

 paper, bits of moss and quill, of about the same size 

 as the flies, and the latter (the flies) were well 

 embraced in a few hours, whereas, after twenty-five 

 hours, only a very few tentacles were inflected over 

 the other objects. The bits of paper, m.oss and quill 

 were then removed from these leaves, and bits of raw 

 meat placed on them, and now all the tentacles were 

 soon energetically inflected." ^ Yet another mode of 

 recognition was manifested. Over and over again, in 

 the work from whence the above is quoted, it is 

 demonstrated that the tentacles remained for a much 

 longer period inflected over what we should term 

 digestible substances than over such indigestible 

 things as bits of glass and paper. The inference to 

 be drawn from this fact is that the plant recognised 

 the latter as indigestible, and hence that the tentacles 

 let go their hold and returned to their previous 

 position of expectancy, whilst in the former they 

 remained closed in the act of digestion. It may be 

 remarked here that as the tentacles, whilst becoming 

 inflected, exude a larger drop of secretion than when 

 erect, so in recovering from inflection they become 

 drier, with little or none of the secretion exuded, 



' Darwin, " Insectivorous Plants," p. 22. 



