300 EEP0ET3 FHOM THE SECTIONS. 



The fiov/era are racemed, or borne in bunches on a stem rising 

 from the centre to a height of about five (5) inches, and are pure 

 white. 



The Drosera hinata is a much larger plant, and of an entirely 

 different appearance, though, like the former, the sides and upper 

 surface of the leaves are armed vrith tentacles of considerable 

 length, some extending half an inch, and the points of each bear- 

 ing small pear-shaped knobs or glands, from which issue the clear 

 yiscid fluid. 



It attains a height sometimes in favourable localities of twenty 

 (20) inches ; each stalk is of a rush-like character, and bearing 

 two blade-leaves of almost an eighth of an inch in width — 

 bifurated once alwavs, and sometimes more. These not unfre- 

 quently attain a length of seven and a half (7^) inches from its 

 junction with the stalk ; the mid-rib of each being hollowed out 

 on both sides, but more on the inner, giving the appearance of 

 grooves. The apex of the blades is extremely fine, terminating 

 in very long tentacles. 



The flowers are similar in many respects to Drosera spatliulata 

 with the exception that the stalk issues immediately from the 

 root and is of a chocolate colour, differing in that particular from 

 the stalks of the leaves, which are green. 



Seen under a microscope with a low power, the leaf presents a 

 curious and most interesting appearance ; the whole of the mid- 

 rib often completely covered with the remains of insects caught, 

 and apparently dissolved or digested, and upon examination these 

 are found to be but the mere shells or cases of the former flies, 

 all of which are found longitudinally placed on the mid-rib of 

 the blade, and their natural hue changed to black. Even bush 

 ants half an inch in length I have seen unable to extricate them- 

 selves from the tentacles, the marginal rows possessing the 

 marvellous power of closing over their victims and gluing them 

 firmly to the smaller and shorter glands rising from the centre of 

 the blade. 



AVhen insects are thus entrapped, their struggles to become 

 free excite the glands to such an extent that they immediately 

 inflect on the irritating object, and the glutinous matter (which, 

 by the way,has been proved to be albumen), heretofore possessing 

 little or no acridity, now appears by the inflected action of the 

 tentacles to have changed its nature and become most acrid, 

 litmus paper being immediately tinged with it. Mr. Darwin 

 states, in his work on "Insectivorous Plants " (page 86) , referring 

 to an experiment on the leaves of Drosera rotundifolia (a plant 

 resembliug Drosera spatliulata) that "The secretion of many 

 glands on thirty leaves, which had not in any way been excited, 

 was tested with litmus paper ; and the secretion of twenty-two 

 of these leaves did not in the least affect the colour, whereas 



