334 DROSOPHYLLUM LUSITANICUM. Chap. XV. 



and indeed the two sets almost graduate into one 

 another. But the sessile glands differ in one im- 

 portant respect, for they never secrete spontaneously, 

 as far as I have seen, though I have examined 

 them under a high power on a hot day, whilst 

 the glands on pedicels were secreting copiously. 

 Nevertheless, if little bits of damp albumen or fibrin 

 are placed on these sessile glands, they begin after a 

 time to secrete, in the same manner as do the glands 

 of Dionsea when similarly treated. When they were 

 merely rubbed with a bit of raw meat, I believe that 

 they likewise secreted. Both the sessile glands and 

 the taller ones on pedicels have the power of rapidly 

 absorbing nitrogenous matter. 



The secretion from the taller glands differs in a 

 remarkable manner from that of Drosera, in being acid 

 before the glands have been in any way excited ; and 

 judging from the changed colour of litmus paper, more 

 strongly acid than that of Drosera. This fact was 

 observed repeatedly ; on one occasion I chose a young 

 leaf, which was not secreting freely, and had never 

 caught an insect, yet the secretion on all the glands 

 coloured litmus paper of a bright red. From the 

 quickness with which the glands are able to obtain 

 animal matter from such substances as well-washed 

 fibrin and cartilage, I suspect that a small quantity of 

 the proper ferment must be present in the secretion 

 before the glands are excited, so that a little animal 

 matter is quickly dissolved. 



Owing to the nature of the secretion or to the shape 

 of the glands, the drops are removed from them with 

 singular facility. It is even somewhat difficult, by 

 the aid of a finely pointed polished needle, slightly 

 damped with water, to place a minute particle of any 

 kind on one of the drops ; for on withdrawing the 



