1 8 Life and Immortality. 



the rest of the leaf being green. No glands are found upon 

 the spikes or upon the foliaceous footstalk. From twenty 

 to thirty polygonal cells, filled with purple fluid, constitute 

 each gland. They are convex above, somewhat flattened 

 underneath, and stand on very short pedicels, into which 

 spiral vessels do not enter. They have the power of secre- 

 tion under certain influences, and also that of absorption. 

 Minute octofid projections, of a reddish-brown color, are 

 scattered in considerable numbers over the footstalk, the 

 backs of the leaves and the spikes, with a few on the upper 

 surfaces of the lobes. 



The sensitive filaments, which are a little more than one- 

 twentieth of an inch in length, and thin, delicate and taper- 

 ing to a point, are formed of several rows of elongated cells, 

 filled with a purplish fluid. They are sometimes bifid or 

 even trifid at the apex, and towards the base there is a con- 

 striction formed of broader cells, and beneath the constric- 

 tion an articulation, supported on an enlarged base, consist- 

 ing of differently shaped polygonal cells. As the filaments 

 project at right angles to the surface of the leaf, they would 

 have been in danger of being broken off whenever the lobes 

 closed together had it not been for the articulation, which 

 allows them to bend flat down. So exquisitely sensitive are 

 these filaments, from their tips to their bases, to a momentary 

 touch, that it is hardly possible to touch them even so lightly 

 or quickly with any hard object without causing the lobes to 

 close, but a piece of delicate human hair, two and a-half 

 inches in length, held dangling over a filament so as to touch 

 it, or pinches of fine wheaten flour, dropped from a height, 

 produce no effect. Though not glandular, and hence inca- 

 pable of secretion, yet the filaments by their sensitiveness to 

 a momentary touch, which is followed by the rapid closure 

 of the lobes of the leaf, assure to Dionaea the necessary 

 supply of insect food for all its wants. 



Inorganic bodies, even of large size, such as bits of 

 stone, glass and such like, or organic bodies not containing 



