Chap. XIV.] ALDROVANDA VESICULOSA. 267 



extremities with the upcurved prickles, which are quite 

 absent in the latter form; and they generally bear on their 

 tips two or three straight prickles instead of one. The bi- 

 lobed leaf appears also to be rather larger and somewhat 

 broader, with the pedicel by which it is attached to the 

 upper end of the petiole a little longer. The points on the 

 infolded margins likewise differ; they have narrower bases, 

 and are more pointed; long and short points also alternate 

 with much more regularity than in the European form. 

 The glands and sensitive hairs are similar in the two forms. 

 No quadrifid processes could be seen on several of the leaves, 

 but I do not doubt that they were present, though indistin- 

 guishable from their delicacy and from having shrivelled; 

 for they were quite distinct on one leaf under circumstances 

 presently to be mentioned. 



Some of the closed leaves contained no prey, but in one 

 there was rather a large beetle, which from its flattened 

 tibiae I suppose was an aquatic species, but was not allied to 

 Colymbetes. All the softer tissues of this beetle were com- 

 pletely dissolved, and its chitinous integuments were as 

 clean as if they had been boiled in caustic potash ; so that it 

 must have been enclosed for a considerable time. The glands 

 were browner and more, opaque than those on other leaves 

 which had caught nothing ; and the quadrifid processes, from 

 being partly filled with brown granular matter, could be 

 plainly distinguished, which was not the case, as already 

 stated, on the other leaves. Some of the points on the in- 

 folded margins likewise contained brownish granular matter. 

 We thus gain additional evidence that the glands, the 

 quadrifid processes, and the marginal points, all have the 

 power of absorbing matter, though probably of a different 

 nature. 



Within another leaf disintegrated remnants of a rather 

 small animal, not a crustacean, which had simple, strong, 

 opaque mandibles, and a large unarticulated chitinous coat, 

 were present. Lumps of black organic matter, possibly of 

 a vegetable nature, were enclosed in two other leaves; but 

 in one of these there was also a small worm much decayed. 

 But the nature of partially digested and decayed bodies, 

 which have been pressed flat, long dried, and then soaked in 

 water, cannot be recognised easily. All the leaves contained 



