344 GLANDULAK HAIES, . Chap. XV. 



— sessile ones arranged in rows, and others sup- 

 ported on moderately long pedicels. Towards the 

 narrow summits of the leaves the pedicels are longer 

 than elsewhere, and here equal the diameter of the 

 leaf. The glands are purplish, much flattened, and 

 formed of a single layer of radiating cells, which in 

 the larger glands are from forty to fifty in number. 

 The pedicels consist of single elongated cells, with 

 colourless, extremely delicate walls, marked with the 

 finest intersecting spiral lines. Whether these lines 

 are the result of contraction from the drying of the 

 walls, I do not know, but the whole pedicel was often 

 spirally rolled up. These glandular hairs are far more 

 simple in structure than the so-called tentacles of the 

 preceding genera, and they do not differ essentially 

 from those borne by innumerable other plants. The 

 flower-peduncles bear similar glands. The most sin- 

 gular character about the leaves is that the apex is 

 enlarged into a little knob, covered with glands, and 

 about a third broader than the adjoining part of the 

 attenuated leaf. In two places dead flies adhered to 

 the glands. As no instance is known of unicellular 

 structures having any power of movement,* Byblis, 

 no doubt, catches insects solely by the aid of its 

 viscid secretion. These probably sink down besmeared 

 with the secretion and rest on the small sessile glands, 

 which, if we may judge by the analogy of Droso- 

 phyllum, then pour fourth their secretion and after- 

 wards absorb the digested matter. 



Siip2^Iementary Observations on the Power of Absorp- 

 tion by the Glandular Hairs of other Plants. — A few 

 observations on this subject may be here conveniently 

 introduced. As the glands of many, probably of all, 



* Sachs, ' Traite do Bot.' 3rd edit. 1874, p. 1026. 



