42 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLTA. Chap. III. 



the channel of communication between the two. On 

 the other hand, such connecting threads are some- 

 times seen to break, and their extremities then 

 quickly become club-headed. The other sketches in 

 fig. 8 show the forms successively assumed. 



Shortly after the purple fluid within the cells has 

 become aggregated, the little masses float about in a 

 colourless or almost colourless fluid ; and the layer 

 of white granular protoplasm which flows along the 

 walls can now be seen much more distinctly. The 

 stream flows at an irregular rate, up one wall and 

 down the opposite one, generally at a slower rate 

 across the narrow ends of the elongated cells, and so 

 round and round. But the current sometimes ceases. 

 The movement is often in waves, and their crests 

 sometimes stretch almost across the whole width of 

 the cell, and then sink down again. Small spheres of 

 protoplasm, apparently quite free, are often driven by 

 the current round the cells ; and filaments attached 

 to the central masses are swayed to and fro, as if 

 struggling to escape. Altogether, one of these cells 

 with the ever changing central masses, and with the 

 layer of protoplasm flowing round the walls, presents 

 a wonderful scene of vital activity. 



]\Iany observations were made on the contents of the cells 

 whilst undergoing the process of aggregation, but I shall detail 

 only a few cases under different heads. A small portion of a 

 leaf was cut off, placed under a high power, and the glands 

 very gently pressed under a compressor. In 15 m. I distinctly 

 saw extremely minute spheres of protoplasm aggregating them- 

 selves in the purple fluid ; these rapidly increased in size, both 

 within the cells of the glands and of the upper ends of the 

 pedicels. Particles of glass, cork, and cinders were also placed 

 on the glands of many tentacles ; in 1 hr. several of them were 

 inflected, but after 1 hr. 35 m. there was no aggregation. Other 

 tentacles with these particles were examined after 8 hrs., and 



