330 ALDROVANDA VESICULOSA. Chap. XIV. 



upcurved prickles ; they terminate also in two straight 

 little prickles. The bilobed leaves are, I believe, 

 larger and certainly broader even than those of the 

 Australian form; so that the greater convexity of 

 their margins was conspicuous. The length of an open 

 leaf being taken at 100, the breadth of the Bengal 

 form is nearly 173, of the Australian form 147, and 

 of the German 134. The points on the infolded 

 margins are like those in the Australian form. Of the 

 few leaves which were examined, three contained 

 entomostracan crustaceans. 



Concluding Bemarhs. — The leaves of the three fore- 

 going closely allied species or varieties are manifestly 

 adapted for catching living creatures. With respect 

 to the functions of the several parts, there can be little 

 doubt that the long jointed hairs are sensitive, like 

 those of Dionaea, and that, when touched, they cause 

 the lobes to close. That the glands secrete a true 

 digestive fluid and afterwards absorb the digested 

 matter, is highly probable from the analogy of Dio- 

 nsea, — from the limpid fluid within their cells being 

 aggregated into spherical masses, after they had 

 absorbed an infusion of raw meat, — from their opaque 

 and granular condition in the leaf, which had enclosed 

 a beetle for a long time, — and from the clean con- 

 dition of the integuments of this insect, as well as 

 of crustaceans (as described by Cohn), which have 

 been long captured. Again, from the effect produced 

 on the quadrifid processes by an immersion for 24 hrs. 

 in a solution of urea, — from the presence of brown 

 granular matter within the quadrifids of the leaf in 

 which the beetle had been caught, — and from the 

 analogy of Utricularia, — it is probable that these pro- 

 cesses absorb excrementitious and decaying animal 

 matter. It is a more curious fact that the points on 



