Chap. XVII.] ABSORPTION BY THE GLANDS. 337 



are, however, far more rapid in Drosera than in Utricularia. 

 Since the bladders have no power of digesting albumen, car- 

 tilage, or roast meat, I was surprised that matter was ab- 

 sorbed, at least in one case, from a fresh infusion of raw 

 meat, I was also surprised, from what we shall presently 

 see with respect to the glands round the orifice, that a fresh 

 solution of urea produced only a moderate effect on the 

 quadrifids. 



As the quadrifids are developed from papillae which at 

 first closely resemble those on the outside of the bladders and 

 on the surfaces of the leaves, I may here state that the two 

 hemispherical cells with which these latter papillse are 

 crowned, and which in their natural state are perfectly trans- 

 parent, likewise absorb carbonate and nitrate of ammonia; 

 for, after an immersion of 23 hrs. in solutions of one part of 

 both these salts to 437 of water, their primordial utricles 

 were a little shrunk and of a pale brown tint, and sometimes 

 finely granular. The same result followed from the immer- 

 sion of a whole branch for nearly three days in a solution of 

 one part of the carbonate to 1750 of water. The grains 

 of chlorophyll, also, in the cells of the leaves on this branch 

 became in many places aggregated into little green 

 masses, which were often connected together by the finest 

 threads. 



On the Absorption of certain Fluids hy the Glands on the 

 Valve and Collar. The glands round the orifices of bladders 

 which are still young, or which have been long kept in 

 moderately pure water, are colourless; and their primordial 

 utricles are only slightly or hardly at all granular. But in 

 the greater number of plants in a state of nature and we 

 must remember that they generally grow in very foul water, 

 and with plants kept in an aquarium in foul water, most 

 of the glands were of a pale brownish tint; their primordial 

 utricles were more or less shrunk, sometimes ruptured, with 

 their contents often coarsely granular or aggregated into 

 little masses. That this state of the glands is due to their 

 having absorbed matter from the surrounding water, I can- 

 not doubt; for, as we shall immediately see, nearly the 

 same results follow from their immersion for a few hours in 

 various solutions. Nor is it probable that this absorption is 

 useless, seeing that it is almost universal with plants grow- 



