THE 



MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



JANUARY 1, 1876. 



I. — Tlie Ahsorptive Glands of Carnivorous Plants. 



By Alfred W. Bennett, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., Lecturer on Botany 



at St. Thomas's Hospital. 



(Read before the Eoyal Microscopical Society, Decemher 1, 1875.) 



Plate CXXVI. 



Those plants which possess the peculiar power of absorbing and 

 digesting' nitrogenous substances presented to their leaves, have from 

 time to time engaged the attention of vegetable physiologists. Among 

 the more important papers on the subject may be mentioned those by 

 Gronland and Trecul, in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles ' for 

 1855 ; Nitschke, in the ' Botanische Zeitung ' for 1860-61 ; Warming, 

 in the Proceedings of the ' Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Copen- 

 hague' for 1873; and, above all, Darwin's work on Insectivorous 

 Plants, published during the present year. These publications deal 

 chiefly with the insectivorous plants belonging to the genera Dro- 

 sera, Pinguicula, Dioneea, and Utricularia ; the " pitcher-plants," 

 Nepemthes, Sarracenia, Darlingtonia, and Cephalotus, not having at 

 present received so large a share of attention. As might naturally 

 be expected at first, observation has been up to the present time 

 chiefly directed to the remarkable phenomena connected with the 

 capture and apparent digestion of the living animals which in the 

 natural state are chiefly devoured by these plants ; while but little 

 investigation has been applied to the discovery of internal organs by 

 the aid of which absorption is effected ; and the assumed absence of 

 any such organs has indeed been brought forward as an argument 



CD EXPLANATION OF PLATE CXXVI. 



^zl Figs. 1-5. — Drosera rotundifolia : gl, absorptive gland in various stages of deve- 

 lopment ; pa, cellular papillae ; pr, processes from papillae ; st, 



^ ' stoma. 



' — * „ 6-8. — Pinguicula vulgaris ; gl, absorptive gland ; st, stoma. Fig. 8 represents 

 a lateral view of a gland projecting slightly above the surface. 



^-^ Fio. 9. — Callitrirhe verna ; gl, absorptive gland ; st, stoma. 



r"^ All from nature, and x 2.')0 diam. 



VOL. XV. B 



