PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 06 



In fact, I do not suppose they could have received a more appropriate 

 name, because in appearance the whole bladder intimately resembles an 

 entomostracon crustacean, the short foot-stalk representing the tail. 



On either side of the quadrangular entrance several long bristles pro- 

 ject outwards, and these bristles, together with the branches of the an- 

 tennas, form a sort of hollow cone surrounding the entrance, and there 

 cannot be the slightest doubt that they act as a guide for the prey. 



The entrance is closed by a valve, which being attached above slopes 

 into the cavity of the bladder, and is attached to it on all sides except at 

 its posterior or lower margin, which is free, and forms one side of the 

 slit-like opening leading into the bladder. 



Differing materially from the color of the bladder itself, which is of 

 a brilliant green, the valve is colorless and transparent, and is extremely 

 flexible and elastic. 



Animals enter the bladder by bending inwards the posterior free edge 

 of the valve, which, from being highly elastic, shuts again immediately. 



The edge is extremely thin and fits closely against the edge of the 

 collar, both projecting into the bladder, and it is extremely difficult, if 

 not impossible, for any animal to escape, although I have observed a 

 long worm do so at the expense of a part of its body ; yet, as a rule, it is 

 a case of "all who eiiter here lose hope." 



To show how closely the edge fits, it was found that a daphnia, which 

 had inserted its antennae into the slit, was held fast a whole day, and on 

 other occasions long, narrow larvae, both dead and alive, were seen 

 wedged between the valve and the collar with their bodies half in and 

 half out the vesicle. 



When a fish is caught, the head is usually pushed as far into the 

 bladder as possible till the snout touches the hinder wall. The two black 

 eyes of the fish then show out conspicuously through the wall of the 



bladder. 



So far as known there is no digestive process in Utricularia neither 

 is there any sensibility to irritation. Mr. Darwin Was unable to detect 

 either, his opinion being that whatever nutriment the plant obtained 

 from its prey was by absorption of the decaying matter, and it would ap- 

 pear that the longer of the two pair of projections composing the quad- 

 rind processes by which the vesicles are lined, which project obliquely 

 inwards and towards the end of the bladder, acts, together with the 

 spring valves at the mouth of the bladder, in utilizing each fresh struggle 

 of the captive for the purpose of pushing it further inwards. If any of 

 my readers wiah for specimens of this interesting plant I shall be enabled 

 in a few days to forward them at a very nominal cost. 



Of its destructive powers all I can say is. that out of 150 newly- 

 hatched perch placed in a glass vessel only one or two were alive two 

 days subsequently." 



We have given this much space to this plant not only because of the 

 novel and interesting character that these discoveries give it, but because 

 it thrives in a large range of our country, including the North and West, 



