332 UTRICULARIA NEGLECTA. [Chap. XVII. 



ccans; as the valve is so well fitted to allow animals to 

 enter and to prevent their eseai)e; and as the inside of the 

 bladder presents so singular a structure, clothed with innu- 

 merable quadrifid and bifid processes, it is impossible to 

 doubt that the plant has been specially adapted for securing 

 prey, i'rom the analogy of Pinguicula, belonging to the 

 same family, I naturally expected that the bladders would 

 have digested their prey; but this is not the case, and there 

 are no glands fitted for secreting the proper fluid. Neverthe- 

 less, in order to test their power of digestion, minute frag- 

 ments of roast meat, three small cubes of albumen, and three 

 of cartilage were pushed through the orifice into the bladders 

 of vigorous plants. They were left from one day to three 

 days and a half within, and the bladders were then cut open : 

 but none of the above substances exhibited the least signs 

 of digestion or dissolution; the angles of the cubes being as 

 sharp as ever. These observations were made subsequently 

 to those on Drosera, Dionica, Drosophyllum, and Pinguicula ; 

 so that I was familiar with the apjxjarance of these sub- 

 stances when undergoing the early and final stages of diges- 

 tion. We may therefore conclude that Utricularia cannot 

 digest the animals which it habitually captures. 



In mQst of the bladders the captured animals are so much 

 decayed that they form a pale brown, pulpy mass, with their 

 chitinous coats so tender that they fall to pieces with the 

 greatest ease. The black pigment of the eye-spots is pre- 

 served better than anything else. Limbs, jaws, fec., are 

 often found quite detached ; and this I suppose is the result 

 of the vain struggles of the later captured animals. I have 

 sometimes felt surprised at the small proportion of impris- 

 oned animals in a fresh state compared with those utterly 

 decayed.' Mrs. Treat states with respect to the larva? above 

 referred to, that " usually in less than two days after a large 

 one was captured the fluid contents of the bladders began to 

 assume a cloudy or muddy appearance, and often bwame so 

 dense that the outline of the animal was lost to view." This 

 statement raises the suspicion that the bladders secrete some 

 ferment hastening the process of decay. There is no in- 

 herent improbability in this supposition, considering that 



' [Sohlmper (' BotanlBcho ZpI- the snine fact In the cose of 

 tang,' IbtSi, p. 245) was struck by U. comuta.F. O.] 



