PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 61 



champ and Cauby also class among them the Sarracenia and the Dar- 

 lingtonia. It should be observed, however, that these last two kinds, as 

 well as the Utricularia, cannot, properly speaking, digest nitrogenous 

 matter. They simply absorb the products of the decomposition of the 

 animals which they capture by means of their bladders, which constitute 

 genuine traps, acting like mouse-traps when in the air, and like fish-traps 

 when in the water or in a very humid soil. 



As regards other carnivorous plants, nothing is wanting to make the 

 analogy of their digestion with that of animals complete. There is the 

 preparatory act, the capture of the living prey, and the essential act char- 

 acterizing digestion, namely, the dissolution of an acid, and of a special 

 juice over food of a proteinous nature; that is, food that among its com- 

 ponent parts contains nitrogen. Numerous experiments made by many 

 botanists, especially those made by Francis Darwin, have clearly shown, 

 in spite of the doubts expressed by other naturalists, that animal matter, 

 absorbed in the manner described, enters directly into the composition of 

 these plants, and is exceedingly useful if not indispensable to their nor- 

 mal development. 



Among the victims commonly found in the traps of carnivorous 

 plants, as far as known till quite recently, there were only insects and 

 umall crustaceans. But a short time ago Mr. Siinms, of Oxford, brought 

 to Professor Moseley a vessel containing a specimen of Utricularia vul- 

 garis (Plate 1), and a number of small Leuciscus rutilus, recently hatched. 

 Many of these small fish were dead, and were held firmly between the 

 valves of the bladders of this voracious plant. The English professor, 

 being interested in this remarkable discovery, procured another specimen 

 of the Utricularia and a supply of eggs and young of the Leuciscus ru- 

 tilus. Six hours later he noticed that more than a dozen of the young fish 

 had been seized by the plant. In most cases the fish are seized by the 

 head (Plate 2, Fig. 1), and sometimes by the tail (Plate 2, Fig. 2). One of 

 the little fish has even been seized by the belly, and another by its two 

 extremities by two bladders at a time (Plate 2, Fig. 3). These last men- 

 tioned facts seem to confirm the opinion of Mrs. Treat that the carnivor- 

 ous plants seize the animal of their own accord, and from this opinion 

 she draws the conclusion that there actually exists in these plants a ehar- 

 teristic nervous tissue. But numerous experiments made by Charles 

 Darwin with one of these plants, the Drosera, by applying to it acids, 

 alkalies, and alkaloids, of various mineral or organic salts, show too great 

 a diversity in their results to allow us to draw therefrom any definite 

 conclusion. Mr. Planchon says with regard to this subject: 'The physi- 

 ological equivalent of nerves is perhaps found in some of the elements 

 constituting the tissue or the cellular contents of plants, which cannot be 

 denied a priori: but sensibility, properly so-called, presupposes a percep- 

 tion of pleasure or pain, which, without further proof, cannot be attri- 

 buted to the most excitable plant.' 



"However this may be, once seized, the victim cannot escape from 

 the jaws of the voracious plant. The numerous glandular thorns (or 



