PITCHER-PLANTS. 107 



the fluid causes an increased secretion, but I have 

 twice observed a considerable increase of fluid in 

 pitchers after putting animal matter in the fluid." ^ 



A series of experiments performed with the 

 pitchers of these Pitcher-plants, resembled those 

 applied previously to the Sundews and Fly-trap, with 

 similar results. White of egg, raw meat, fibrine, 

 and cartilage were employed for feeding. In all 

 cases the action was most evident, and in some sur- 

 prising. After twenty-four hours' immersion, the 

 edges of the cubes of white of egg were eaten away, 

 and the surfaces gelatinised. Fragments of meat 

 were rapidly reduced, and pieces of fibrine weighing 

 several grains were dissolved, and had totally disap- 

 peared in two or three days. With cartilage the action 

 was most remarkable. Lumps of this, weighing eight 

 and ten grains, were half-gelatinised in twenty-four 

 hours, and in three days the whole mass was greatly 

 diminished, and reduced to a clear, transparent jelly. 



That this action, which is comparable to digestion, 

 is not wholly due to the secretion, as at first deposited, 

 seems probable, since very little change took place in 

 any of the substances when placed in the fluid drawn 

 from the pitchers, and put in glass tubes, nor even in 

 substances immersed in the pitchers, when the plants 

 have been removed into a room the temperature of 



^ See " Gardeners Chronicle," September 5, 1874, p. 293. 



