310 DION^A MUSCIPULA. Chap. XIII. 



meat for eleven days, a third leaf for eight days, and 

 a fourth (but this had been cracked and injured) for 

 only six days. Bits of cheese, or casein, were placed 

 at one end and albumen at the other end of three 

 leaves; and the ends with the former oj^ened after 

 six, eight, and nine days, whilst the opposite ends 

 opened a little later. None of the above bits of meat, 

 albumen, &c., exceeded a cube of -^ of an inch 

 (2-54 mm.) in size, and were sometimes smaller ; yet 

 these small portions sufficed to keep the leaves closed 

 for many days. Dr. Canby informs me that leaves 

 remain shut for a longer time over insects than over 

 meat ; and from what I have seen, I can well believe 

 that this is the case, especially if the insects are 

 large. 



In all the above cases, and in many others in which 

 leaves remained closed for a long but unknown 

 period over insects naturally caught, they were more 

 or less torpid when they reopened. Generally they 

 were so torpid during many succeeding days that no 

 excitement of the filaments caused the least move- 

 ment. In one instance, however, on the day after a 

 leaf oj)ened which had clasped a fly, it closed with ex- 

 treme slowness when one of its filaments was touched ; 

 and although no object was left enclosed, it was so 

 torpid that it did not re-open for the second time 

 until 44 hrs. had elapsed. In a second case, a leaf 

 which had expanded after remaining closed for at 

 least nine days over a fly, when greatly irritated, 

 moved one alone of its two lobes, and retained this 

 unusual position for the next two days. A third case 

 offers the strongest exception which I have observed ; 

 a leaf, after remaining clasped for an unknown time 

 over a fly, opened, and when one of its filaments was 

 touched, closed, though rather slowly. Dr. Canby, 



