Chap. II.] INFLECTION INDIRECTLY CAUSED. 19 



influence can be transmitted along the nerves to glands, 

 modifying their power of secretion, independently of the 

 state of the blood-vessels. 



The Inflection of the Exterior Tentacles from the Glands of 



the Disc being excited hy Repeated Touches, or hy 



Objects left in Contact with them. 



The central glands of a leaf were irritated with a small 

 stiff camel-hair brush, and in 70 m. (minutes) several of the 

 outer tentacles were inflected ; in 5 hrs. (hours) all the sub- 

 marginal tentacles were inflected; next morning after an 

 interval of about 22 hrs. they were fully re-expanded. In all 

 the following cases the period is reckoned from the time of 

 first irritation. Another leaf treated in the same manner 

 had a few tentacles inflected in 20 m. ; in 4 hrs. all the sub- 

 marginal and some of the extreme marginal tentacles, as 

 well as the edge of the leaf itself, were inflected; in 17 hrs. 

 they had recovered their proper, expanded position. I then 

 put a dead fly in the centre of the last-mentioned leaf, and 

 next morning it was closely clasped; five days afterwards the 

 leaf re-expanded, and the tentacles, with their glands sur- 

 rounded by secretion, were ready to act again. 



Particles of meat, dead flies, bits of paper, wood, dried 

 moss, sponge, cinders, glass, &c., were repeatedly placed on 

 leaves, and these objects were well embraced in various 

 periods from 1 hr. to as long as 24 hrs., and set free again, 

 with the leaf fully re-expanded, in from one or two, to seven 

 or even ten days, according to the nature of the object. On 

 a leaf which had naturally caught two flies, and therefore 

 had already closed and reopened either once, or more probably 

 twice, I put a fresh fly; in 7 hrs. it was moderately, and in 

 21 hrs, thoroughly well, clasped, with the edges of the leaf in- 

 flected. In two days and a half the leaf had nearly re- 

 expanded ; as the exciting object was an insect, this unusually 

 short period of inflection was, no doubt, due to the leaf having 

 recently been in action. Allowing this same leaf to rest for 

 only a single day, I put on another fly, and it again closed, 

 but now very slowly; nevertheless, in less than two days it 

 succeeded in thoroughly clasping the fly. 



When a small object is placed on the glands of the disc, on 

 3 



