282 DROSEEA BINATA. Chap. XII. 



Dorothy Nevill for a fine plant of this almost gigantic Australian 

 species, which differs in some interesting points from those pre- 

 viously described. In this specimen the rush-like footstalks of 

 the leaves were 20 inches in length. The blade bifurcates at its 

 junction with the footstalk, and twice or thrice afterwards, curl- 

 ing about in an irregular manner. It is narrow, being only -^ 

 of an inch in breadth. One blade was 7^ inches long, so that 

 the entire leaf, including the footstalk, was above 27 inches in 

 length. Both surfaces are slightly hollowed out. The upper 

 surface is covered with tentacles arranged in alternate rows; 

 those in the middle being short and crowded together, those 

 towards the margins longer, even twice or thrice as long as the 

 blade is broad. The glands of the exterior tentacles are of a 

 much darker red than those of the central ones. The pedicels 

 of all are green. The apex of the blade is attenuated, and bears 

 very long tentacles. Mr. Copland informs me that the leaves of 

 a plant which he kept for some years were generally covered 

 with captured insects before they withered. 



The leaves do not differ in essential points of structure or of 

 function from those of the previously described species. Bits of 

 meat or a little saliva placed on the glands of the exterior 

 tentacles caused well-marked movement in 3 m., and particies 

 of glass acted in 4 m. The tentacles with the latter particles 

 re-expanded after 22 hrs. A piece of leaf immersed in a few 

 drops of a solution of one part of carbonate of ammonia to 437 

 of -water had all the glands blackened and all the tentacles 

 inflected in 5 m. A bit of raw meat, placed on several glands in 

 the medial furrow, was well clasped in 2 hrs. 10 m. by the mar- 

 ginal tentacles on both sides. Bits of roast meat and small flies 

 did not act quite so quickly ; and albumen and fibrin still less 

 quickly. One of the bits of meat excited so much secretion 

 (which is always acid) that it flowed some way down the medial 

 furrow, causing the inflection of the tentacles on both sides as 

 far as it extended. Particles of glass iDlaced on the glands in the 

 medial furrow did not stimulate them sufficiently for any motor 

 impulse to be sent to the outer tentacles. In no case was the 

 blade of the leaf, even the attenuated apex, at all inflected. 



On both the upper and lower surface of the blade there are 

 numerous minute, almost sessile glands, consisting of four, eight, 

 or twelve cells. On the lower surface they are pale purple, on 

 the upper greenish. Nearly similar organs occur on the foot- 

 stalks, but they are smaller and often in a shrivelled condition. 

 The minute glands on the blade can absorb rapidly: thus, a 

 piece of leaf was immersed in a solution of one part of carbonate 



