^68 ALDROVANDA VESICULOSA. [Cuap. XIV. 



unicellular and other Algse, still of a greenish colour, which 

 had evidently lived as intruders, in the same manner as oc- 

 curs, according to Cohn, within the leaves of this plant in 

 Germany. 



Aldrovanida vesiculosa, var. verlicillata. Dr. King, Su- 

 perintendent of the Botanic Gardens, kindly sent me dried 

 specimens collected near Calcutta. This form was, I believe, 

 considered by Wallich as a distinct species, under the name 

 of verticillata. It resembles the Australian form much 

 more nearly than the European; namely in the projections 

 at the upper end of the petiole being much attenuated and 

 covered with upcurved prickles; they terminate also in two 

 straight little prickles. The bilobed leaves are, 1 believe, 

 larger and certainly broader even than those of the Austral- 

 ian form; so that the greater convexity of their margins 

 was conspicuous. The length of an open leaf being taken 

 at 100, the breadth of the Bengal form is nearly 173, of the 

 Australian form 147, and of the German 134. The points 

 on the infolded margins are like those in the Australian 

 form. Of the few leaves which were examined, three con- 

 tained entomostracan crustaceans. 



Concluding Remarks. The leaves of the three foregoing 

 closely allied species or varieties are manifestly adapted for 

 catching living creatures. With respect to the functions of 

 the several parts, there can be little doubt that the long 

 jointed hairs are sensitive, like those of Diontea, and that, 

 when touched, they cause the lobes to close. That the glands 

 secrete a true digestive fluid and afterwards absorb the di- 

 gested matter, is highly probable from the analogy of Di- 

 ontea, from the limpid fluid within their cells being aggre- 

 gated into spherical masses, after they had absorbed an 

 infusion of raw meat, from their opaque and granular con- 

 dition in the leaf, which had enclosed a beetle for a long 

 time, and from the clean condition of the integuments of 

 this insect, as well as of crustaceans (as described by Cohn), 

 which have been long captured. Again, from the effect pro- 

 duced on the quadrifld processes by an immersion for 24 hrs. 

 in a solution of urea, from the presence of brown granular 

 matter within the quadrifids of the leaf in which the beetle 

 had been caught, and from the analogy of Utricularia, it 

 is probable that these processes absorb excremcntitious and 



