QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 185 



shady places, and its creeping rhizomes form a mat round the 

 roots of the host, being attached to them by slender roots ending 

 in a button-like expansion. In the spring a few flower stalks 

 about 6 in. long are sent up ; these are curved like a crook, and 

 bear the pale rose-coloured flowers all on one side. The white, 

 fleshy, much-branched rhizomes form the chief part of the plant, 

 and the short thick leaves are arranged on them in four rows. 

 The leaves are very remarkable; they appear to be doubled 

 back on themselves, and so form a cavity with a small entrance, 

 which is divided into from six to thirteen chambers. These 

 chambers are lined with two sets of special cells, both of which 

 are supposed to be able to send out pseudopodia and to assist in 

 preventing the various small creatures that enter the cavities 

 from escaping. These animals die and become absorbed probably 

 by the watchglass-shaped cells to which vessels may sometimes 

 be traced. The plant is thus a double parasite. It not only 

 lives on the roots of trees, but it supplements its supply of nitro- 

 genous food by catching, killing, and absorbing small insects and 

 other creatures. Dr. Leeson then pointed out the various parts 

 of the plant in a series of lantern-slides, and compared the insect- 

 catching apparatus with that of the Alpine Bartsia and the 

 butterwort. 



The address was followed by an interesting discussion, in which 

 many of the members took part. Mr. N. E. Brown said that the 

 toothwort grew in Kew Gardens on the roots of rhododendrons 

 and elsewhere. Mr. Paulson stated that a species of Lathrea 

 grows in the Alexandra Park, at Hastings, also on rhododendrons. 

 Toothwort is fairly abundant in the south-eastern counties, not- 

 ably near Keston and Caterham. He himself had never found it 

 north of the Thames. He had never seen the pseudopodia, and 

 doubted whether anyone had. There was an excellent paper by 

 G. Massee, in the Journal of Botany, twelve or fourteen years ago, 

 in which he proved that the buttons on the roots are only formed 

 just after the seed germinates, and then they disappear. He also 

 showed that the plant obtained part of its nutriment as a sapro- 

 phyte. Mr. Hilton objected to the use of the word " pseudo- 

 podia " in describing the protoplasmic threads which were sup- 

 posed to be emitted by the special cells in the cavities. Another 

 member said that toothwort required a moist alkaline soil, and was 

 frequently found at the base of chalk hills. He had found it at 



