THE MICROSCOPE AND PLANT LIFE 



number of hollow structures, the bladders. There 

 is an entrance to each bladder, edged with stiff hairs 

 and closed by a trap door, which opens inwards but 

 will not open outwards. All these parts may be 

 seen under the microscope as may the interior of 

 a bladder; its walls are studded with short hairs. 

 When small water animals enter a bladder, it is 

 said that they do so to escape from their enemies; 

 they are entrapped forever, they die and eventually 

 decay. The juices which arise from their decaying 

 bodies are absorbed by the hairs lining the bladder. 



The Sundews are pretty plants, with rosettes of 

 reddish leaves and minute white flowers. With the 

 naked eye we can usually see many drops of clear 

 liquid on the leaves, a number of substantial-looking 

 hairs and a few insects adhering thereto. If we 

 examine one of these hairs under the microscope, 

 we shall see that it is club-shaped ; it is, in fact, a 

 hair which gives off a sticky liquid with the power of 

 holding any luckless insect that settles thereon and 

 absorbing its softer parts for the nourishment of 

 the Sundew. An examination of a complete leaf 

 with our pocket lens will show that where an insect 

 has settled, several of these hairs have curled over 

 so that they touch their victim. Because the hairs 

 possess this power of movement they are often 

 wrongly called tentacles. 



Butterwort, like Sundew has a rosette of leaves 

 but they are greasy looking and pale green. Their 

 flowers are a pretty blue. Most probably we shall 

 notice that the edges of the leaves are curled 



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