BLADDER WORT 35 



pasture where plentie of this grass groweth become full of lice". But 

 this is due to their poor condition. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



240. Pedicularispalustris, L. Stem erect, solitary, purple, branched 

 throughout, leaves pinnatifid, flowers crimson, calyx hairy, ovoid, 

 2-lobed. 



Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris, L.) 



Though paludal, there is no record of Bladderwort in early seed- 

 bearing beds. The present range is Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, N. 

 America, or the N. Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it is found 

 in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in 

 the last in E. Gloucs, Warwick, Stafford; in Wales in Glamorgan, 

 Radnor, Carnarvon, Flint, Anglesea; in the Trent province; in the 

 Mersey province, except Mid Lanes; in the Humber, Tyne, and Lakes 

 provinces, except in the Isle of Man; in the W. Lowlands, E. Low- 

 lands, except Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow; in the E. Highlands, except 

 in Stirling, S. Perth; in the W. Highlands, except in Cantire, Ebudes 

 (S., Mid, and N.); and in E. Ross and the Northern Isles. It ascends 

 to 1500 ft. in the Highlands. It is a native in Ireland and the 

 Channel Islands. Probably few persons that have not made syste- 

 matic botanical surveys, or visited special stations for certain plants, 

 have had the good fortune to discover the elusive Bladderwort. 



Though typical of bog and marsh formations it is also found, more 

 seldom now than formerly, in pools and ditches, and may also occur 

 here and there in ponds, but its chief habitat is the bog-pools on the 

 side of moist mountains. In this way it is common to either formations. 



The bladders are on short stalks. They are about one-tenth of an 

 inch long. The green translucent utricles, 1 as they are called, consist 

 of two layers of cells, the outer large, and forming many-angled cells, 

 with smaller rounded cells in the angles. The inside of the bladder is 

 filled with absorbent processes in groups two long and two short. 2 



The lower side is straight, the upper arched, and in general form it 

 resembles a water flea. Two sets of processes surround the entrance, 

 two long and branched above, others straight in groups around the 

 mouth, which has a collar within, with a flap which closes the cavity, 

 and can be easily pushed aside by a minute aquatic insect or crustacean 

 entering, but effectually closes it once the insect is within. The walls 



1 Hence the first Latin name, and also the English name. The utricle or bladder in this plant must 

 not be confounded with the utricle or fruit in sedges (also bladder-like in form externally). 



2 See Charles Darwin, Insectivorous Plants. 



