150 Scientific — 
the Drosera have the power, when a s on body is applied to their 
upper surface, of contracting and enclosing the substance so 
applied, by this means in many cases proving a trap to those 
insects which happen to light upon them. The examination of this 
fact is certainly worth the attention of the naturalist. In the sec- 
ond edition of Withering’s ‘Botanical Arrangement,’ it is alleged 
that this phenomenon was observed immediately to follow the 
application of the substance. But it appears from works of a late 
leaf was completely folded together. The same author observes 
that when an insect is placed upon a leaf it naturally endeavors 
the pressure of the hairs, which cannot be great, but rather from 
the nature of the fluid which they exude. After the hairs have 
thus enclosed the animal the leaf re — to contract, and by 
very considerable time, nor did I at all ———: _ But as it must 
be owned that these were made with a pin instead of an insect, 
I eaniiot onhaad to contradict the fact, but ‘ids to blame the 
| mode in which the trials were made. For it is well known to 
. every one who has seen this plant in the growing state that many 
Q of its leaves are generally folded, and if these are opened there 
. is always eae some prises enclosed. If, therefore, the Drosera 
is endowed with such a power (and there is the strongest reason 
to believe it is) we shall have some difficulty in accounting for it 
on Phage merely mechanical. 
erman — mn sation to was probably Roth. In our 
 ~ Di longifolia by Men cg of New Jersey is recorded, a bee 
thought to be wholly ne 
7. Prantl’s memoir spies Inuline, an inaugural Pateow ele we 
believe, mdi by pene University, and printed in Bot. Zeit., 
1870, No. 39, is thus noticed :— 
“The results obtained ry the author of this memoir are in all 
evi ea features in oe with what MM. Nigeli and Sachs 
have said of inulin 
hydrate of carbon, which differs from starch, cellulose, and lichen- 
ine, in never taking o on an organic form. Its fixity sufficiently 
differentiates it from dextrine. It seems to approach most nearly 
to cane-sugar. P 
“ Tnuline is constantly found in plants in the form of a solution 
of 1 part of inuline to 7 of water. As in artificial solutions, 0-01 
gram of inuline saturates 100 cub. centims. of water, we may 8U 
