244 



DROSEKA EOTUNDIFOLIA. 



Chap. X. 



p. 10). The short tentacles within this ring still 

 retain their vertical position, as they likewise do when 

 a large object is placed on their glands, or when an 

 insect is caught by them. In this latter case we can 

 see that the inflection of the short central tentacles 

 would be useless, as their glands are already in con- 

 tact with their prey. 



The result is very different when a single gland on 

 one side of the disc is excited, or a few in a group. 



These send an impulse to 

 the surrounding tentacles, 

 which do not now bend 

 towards the centre of the 

 leaf, but to the point 

 of excitement. We owe 

 this capital observation to 

 Kitschke,* and since read- 

 ing his paper a few years 

 ago, I have repeatedly 

 verified it. If a minute bit 

 of meat be placed by the 

 aid of a needle on a single 

 gland, or on three or four 

 together, halfway between 

 the centre and the circum- 

 ference of the disc, the 

 directed movement of the 



^bir of meat placed on one side of g^rOUudiug tCntaclcS is 



well exhibited. An accu- 

 rate drawing of a leaf with meat in this position is 

 here reproduced (fig. 10), and we see the tentacles, in- 

 cluding some of the exterior ones, accurately directed 

 to the point where the meat lay. But a much better 



Fig. 10. 



(^Drosera rotundifolia.') 



Leaf (enlarged) with the tentacles inflected 



over 

 thei 



* *Bot. Zeitimg,' 18G0, p. 240. 



