446 THE UNIVERSE. 



ous with respect to little winged insects, but after another 

 method, which we might almost call physico-vital. All the 

 upper surface of its leaves is covered with long slender fila- 

 ments, each bearing at its end a little drop of glutinous 

 fluid, and every imprudent fly that comes among them for 

 the purposes of plunder finds there a certain death. Its 

 wings and feet being glued with the secretion, all escape is 

 rendered impossible. Whenever, on a botanical excursion, 

 we find this plant towards the mouth of the Seine, we al- 

 ways observe that its leaves are plentifully garnished with 

 the dead bodies of its victims. 



On the other hand, the botanist can succeed in demon- 

 strating vegetable irritability by experiment. For this 

 purpose it suffices to excite certain organs with the point of 

 a needle or a fine scalpel. So soon as we touch the stamens 

 of the barberry, the nettle, or the cactus, we see them 

 shrink quickly from the instrument. In the same way the 

 pistils of the Mimulus bring their blades together when the 

 least prick is made. 



Lastly, this mobility is again seen manifesting itself spon- 

 taneously with extraordinary intensity in the pollinic ani- 

 malcules of certain plants, which are furnished for this pur- 

 pose with special organs or ciliae, by means of which they 

 swim in every direction in the fluid which contains them ! 

 (See Fig. 171.) 



Some true animalcule-plants are formed like eels, and 

 move by the aid of two long filaments which they carry on 

 their heads. This is seen in the common Chara of our 

 ponds. Others, which flit about in the cells of mosses, are 

 exactly like the tadpoles of frogs. 



