Drosophyllum, a rare representative of the order, confined to 

 Portugal and Morocco, grows on the sides of dry hills near Oporto; 

 so that, as to station, it is the very counterpart of Aldrovunda. 

 Its leaves are long and slender, in the manner of our Brosera fili- 

 formis, and are covered with mucli larger glands. To these flies 

 adhere in vast numbers. " The latter fact is well known to the 

 villagers, who call the plant the 'fly catcher,' and hang it up in 

 their cottages for this purpose." Mr. Darwin found the glands in- 

 cu|)able of movement, and their behavior in some other respects 

 diifors from that of Brosera ; but they equally secrete a digestive 

 juice. Insects usually drag ofi" this secretion instead of being 

 fixed on the glands by it ; but their fate is no better ; for as the 

 poor animal crawls on and these viscid drops bedaub it on all 

 sides, it sinks down at length exhausted or dead, and rests on a 

 still more numerous set of small sessile glands which thickly 

 cover the whole surface of the leaf. These were till then dry and 

 inert, but as soon as animal matter thus comes in contact with 



, with even greater readiness than that 

 of Brosera. ' 



Mr. Darwin next records various observations and experiments 

 upon more ordinary glandular hairs of se\eral plants. To certain 

 Saxifrages his attention was naturally called, on account of the 

 presumed relationship of Broseracem to this genus. He declares 

 that " their glands absorb matter from an infusion of raw meat, 

 from solutions of nitrate and carbonate of ammonia, and appar- 

 ently from decayed insects. To such plants the vast number of 

 little insects caught may not be useless, as they may be to many 

 other plants (tobacco, for instance) with sticky glands, in which 

 Mr. Darwin could detect no power of absorption. The prevalent 

 idea, that glandular hairs in general serve merely as secreting o - 

 excreting organs, and are of small or no account to the planv^ 

 must now be reconsidered. Those of the common Chinese Pnm- 

 rose {Primula Sinensis) although indiflerent to animal i refusions, 

 were found to absorb quickly both the solution and vapor of car- 

 bonate of ammonia. Now, as rain-water contains a small per- 

 centage of ammonia, and the atmosphere a minute quantity of the 

 carbonate or nitrate, and as a moderate-sized plant of this primrose 

 was ascertained, (by estimate from a count on small measured 



nous organs are neither r 

 just sense insignificant. 



Mr. Darwin next investigates the densely crowded short glan- 

 dular hairs, with their secretions, which form the buttery surface 

 of the face of the leaves of Pinguicuht., the Butterwort. He finds 

 that the leaves of the common Butterw^ort have great numbers of 

 small insects adhering to them, as also grains of pollen, small 

 seeds, &c. ; that most substances so lodged or placed, if yielding 



