236 Charles Darwin. 



and in connection with his work on the fertihsation 

 of orchids we have a remarkable instance of similar 

 verification. The nectdirxes oi Angrcscmn sesguipedale 

 Avere found by him to sometimes reach 1 1^ inches in 

 length, with only the lowest i^ inches filled with 

 nectar. He said " there must be moths with pro- 

 bosces capable of extension to a length of between 

 10 and II inches." In Nature for July 17, 1873, or 

 some years later, Fritz Miiller recorded through his 

 brother, Herman Miiller, the finding of a Brazilian 

 Sphingid having a length of proboscis of 0.25 metres, 

 or between 10 and 11 inches. 



I cannot do justice to Darwin's work on " Insec- 

 tivorous Plants " within the time to which these 

 remarks have been limited, nor without trenching 

 on the ground to be covered by Professor Ward. I 

 must be content to remark, therefore, that he dem- 

 onstrated the new and wonderful fact in physiology 

 that many plants are capable of absorbing soluble 

 matter from captured insects, and that they have 

 special contrivances and sensibilities that facilitate 

 the capture of their prey : in other words, that 

 plants actually capture and digest anirrial food ; for 

 the secretion of Drosera, and other insectivorous 

 plants, with its ferment-acid belonging to the acetic 

 series, resembles the gastric juice of animals with its 

 pepsin and hydrochloric acid. The fact of absorp- 

 tion demonstrated, it follows that the process would 

 prove serviceable to plants growing in very poor 

 soil, and that it would tend to be perfected by 

 natural selection. 



The pleasure Darwin took in observing the hab- 



