854 UTRICULARIA MONTANA. [Chap. XVIII. 



obtained permission to remove small portions of the rhizomes from 

 dried specimens in the herbarium at Kew. I did not at first find 

 out that it was advisable to soak the rhizomes for two or three 

 days, and that it was necessary to open the bladders and spread 

 out their contents on glass: as from their state of decay and 

 from having been dried and pressed, their nature could not other- 

 wise be well distinguished. Several bladders on a plant which had 

 gi'own in black earth in New Granada were first examined; and 

 four of these included remnants of animals. The first contained 

 a hairy Acarus, so much decayed that nothing was left except its 

 transparent coat; also a yellow chitinous head of some animal with 

 an internal fork, to which the oesophagus was suspended, but I 

 could see no mandibles; also the double hook of the tarsus of 

 some animal ; also an elongated greatly decayed animal ; and lastly, 

 a curious fiask-shaped organism, having the walls formed of 

 rounded cells. Professor Claus has looked at this latter organism, 

 and thinks that it is the shell of a rhizopod, probably one of the 

 Arcellidae. In this bladder, as well as in several others, there were 

 some unicellular Algae, and one multicellular Alga, which no doubt 

 had lived as intruders. 



A second bladder contained an Acarus much less decayed than 

 the former one, with its eight legs preserved ; as well as remnants of 

 several other articulate animals. A third bladder contained the 

 end of the abdomen with the two hinder limbs of an Acarus, as 

 I believe. A fourth contained remnants of a distinctly articulated 

 bristly animal, and of several other organisms, as well as much 

 dark brown organic matter, the nature of which could not be 

 made out. 



Some bladders from a plant, which had lived as an epiphyte 

 in Trinidad, in the West Indies, were next examined, but not so 

 carefully as the others; nor had they been soaked long enough. 

 Four of them contained much brown, translucent granular matter, 

 apparently organic, with no distinguishable parts. The qiiadrifids 

 in two were brownish, with their contents granular; and it was 

 evident that they had absorbed matter. In a fifth bladder there 

 was a fiask-shaped organism, like that above mentioned. A sixth 

 contained a very long, much decayed, worm-shaped animal. Lastly, 

 a seventh bladder contained an organism, but of what nature could 

 not be distinguished. 



Only one experiment was tried on the quadrifid processes 

 and glands with reference to their power of absorption. A 

 bladder was punctured and left for 24 hrs. in a solution of 

 one part of urea to 437 of water, and the quadrifid and bifid 

 processes were found much affected. In some arms there 

 was only a single symmetrical globular mass, larger than 

 the proper nucleus, and consisting of yellowish matter, gen- 

 erally translucent but sometimes granular; in others there 



