894 PINGUICULA LUSITANICA. Chap. XVI. 



(7) The flower-pednncles, sepals and petals, bear glands in 

 general appearance like those on the leaves. A piece of a 

 flower-peduncle was therefore left for 1 hr. in a solution of 

 one part of carbonate of ammonia to 437 of water, and this 

 caused the glands to change from bright pink to a dull 

 purple colour ;« but their contents exhibited no distinct aggre- 

 gation. After 8 hrs. 30 m. they became colourless. Two minuto 

 cubes of albumen were placed on the glands of a flower- 

 peduncle, and another cube on the glands of a sepal ; but they 

 were not excited to increased secretion, and the albumen 

 after two days was not in the least softened. Hence these 

 glands apparently differ greatly in function from those on the 

 leaves. 



From the foregoing obseryations on Finguicula lusi- 

 tanica we see that the naturally much incurved mar- 

 gins of the leaves are excited to curve still farther in- 

 wards by contact with organic and inorganic bodies ; 

 that albumen, cabbage seeds, bits of spinach leaves, 

 and fragments of glass, cause the glands to secrete 

 more freely ; — that albumen is dissolved by the 

 secretion, and cabbage seeds killed by it ; — and lastly 

 that matter is absorbed by the glands from the insects 

 which are caught in large numbers by the viscid 

 secretion. The glands on the flower-peduncles seem 

 to have no such power. This species differs from Pin- 

 guicala vulgaris and grandiflora in the margins of the 

 leaves, when excited by organic bodies, being inflected 

 to a greater degree, and in the inflection lasting for a 

 longer time. The glands, also, seem to be more easily 

 excited to increased secretion by bodies not yielding 

 soluble nitrogenous matter. In other respects, as far 

 as my observations serve, all three species agree in 

 their functional powers. 



