HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 205 



wise, and so forth until all the tentacles cover the victim. It is 

 not always the middle of the leaf upon which the tentacles meet. 

 Frequently, if two insects have lodged upon the same leaf, the 

 two hundred tentacles form into two groups, each trying to cover 

 one of the captured insects. If the insect is large even the mar- 

 gins of a leaf curve over the food, and thus the surface of the 

 leaf resembles a hollow hand filled with a large amount of diges- 

 tive fluid. 



These movements vary for every case, but they are always 

 adapted to be of the greatest benefit to the plant, and always suc- 

 •ceed in covering the victim with a secretion to dissolve and ab- 

 sorb it. If an insect should be glued to one of the tentacles near 

 the margin, not enough of the secretion could reach it, and 

 therefore the tentacle bends inward to bring it in contact with 

 the other glands, and it is soon digested. According to the size 

 of the insect captured, it takes from two to three days to digest 

 it; if completed, the original i)Osition is resumed, the secretion 

 is all withdrawn, and the remaining dry parts of the insects are 

 carried away by the wind. The leaf is now ready to catch more 

 victims. Little flies form the staple food for these plants, but 

 other insects, if not too large, are also captured. Even dragon 

 flies have been caught, but in this case three neighboring leaves 

 acted in unison. 



How important the movement of these tentacles are, not alone 

 for the plant but for botanical and other sciences, can be imag- 

 ined if we remember that this movement did not alone take place 

 in the excited cell, but that this excitement was communicated 

 to the second, third, tenth and one hundredth protoplast, and 

 that the rate at which the excitement traveled can be measured. 

 (By protoplast we understand the individual protoplasm inhab- 

 iting a single cell). The movements, moreover, are always di- 

 rected to carry out a certain work, a work to the best of the 

 whole community of protoplasts, and such movements must be 

 considered as at least instinctive ones. 



Investigations have given the following results: a piece of a 

 woman's hair two-tenths of a millimetre in length, and weighing 

 .000822 milligrams, laid upon a tentacle of the Drosera, produced 

 a slight movement, a bending of the excited gland. Such a minute 

 body laid upon the tongue of a human being is not recognized at all, 

 and the protoplast in the gland of this plant is consequently more 

 sensitive than the nerve endings in our tongue, which is consid- 

 ered our most sensitive organ. One four-thousandth part of a 



