INSECTIVOROUS AND CLIMBIXG PLANTS. 310 



little cubes of albumen. But when moistened with 

 saliva, or replaced by bits of roast-meat or gelatine, or 

 even cartilage, which supply some soluble j9e^^^(?7ie-mat- 

 ter to initiate the process, these substances are promptly 

 acted upon, and dissolved or digested ; whence it is 

 inferred that the analogy with the stomach holds good 

 throughout, and that a ferment similar to pepsin is 

 poured out under the stimulus of some soluble animal 

 matter. But the direct evidence of this is furnished 

 only by the related carnivorous plant, Dioncea, from 

 which the secretions, poured out when digestion is 

 about to begin, may be collected in quantity sufficient 

 for chemical examination. In short, the experiments 

 show "that there is a remarkable accordance in the 

 power of digestion between the gastric juice of ani- 

 mals, with its pepsin and hydrochloric acid, and the 

 secretion of Drosera^ with its ferment and acid belong- 

 ing to the acetic series. We can, therefore, hardly 

 doubt that the ferment in both cases is closely similar, 

 if not identically the same. That a plant and an 

 animal should pour forth the same, or nearly the 

 same, complex secretion, adapted for the same pui*- 

 pose of digestion, is a new and wonderful fact in phys- 

 iology." 



There are one or two other species of sundew — 

 one of them almost as common in Europe and JN^orth 

 America as the ordinary round-leaved S23ecies — which 

 act in the same way, except that, having their leaves 

 longer in proportion to their breadth, their sides never 

 curl inward, but they are much disposed to aid the 

 action of their tentacles by incurving the tip of the 

 leaf, as if to grasp the morsel. There are many otli- 



