68 MORPHOLOGY 



too that the leaves of the Tobacco plant are very 

 sticky, and are also seen to be covered with insects — 

 some dead and others struggling to escape — and the 

 probability is that it is also partly insectivorous. It 

 is worth adding that well-known insectivorous plants 

 like Drosera never have large roots, a fact which 

 confirms the view that their leaves take part in the 

 absorption of food. 



The Tobacco and lal-bharenda plants referred to 

 above are perhaps Indian representatives of the Fly- 

 catcher of Europe and Africa with its rosettes of long 

 and narrow radical leaves full of short-stalked glands, 

 which remind one of the long-stalked glands of Dro- 

 sera. These glands secrete a liquid which glistens 

 in the sunshine like dew-drops. 



That cladodes, phyllodia, tendrils, spines or thorns, 

 and pitchers or bladders are metamorphosed buds, 

 leaves, stipules, or other morphological units is made 

 out by their homology; that is to say, their resem- 

 blances to buds, leaves, &c., in origin, development, 

 and position. For example, as described above, the 

 thorns of kul, teshira-monsha, occupy the position 

 of stipules, and are therefore homologous with them ; 

 the tendrils of Pea homologous with the upper leaflets 

 of the compound pinnate leaf; the tendrils of Nara- 

 velia zeylanica homologous with the terminal leaflet 

 of its ternate leaves. Similarly, we shall soon have 

 to discuss the point that flowers are homologous with 

 leaf-buds, and that floral leaves and foliage leaves are 

 also homologous structures. A study of homology, 

 therefore, is invaluable in the elucidation of plant 

 morphology. Organs which resemble one another 

 in their origin, development, position, and place in 

 life-history, so that we regard them as morphologically 

 the same organ, however different they may appear 



