INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 



375 



it is a matter of life or death, and yet matters are so simple in them; in the 

 insectivorous plants it is simply a matter of more or less vigorous flourishing, since, 

 being possessed of chlorophyll and true roots, they are able to supply themselves with 

 nutriment, and nevertheless expensive and remarkable mechanisms exist in order to 

 add a small quantity of proteid substances. Only on knowing that the minute embryo 

 of a Date-stone or of a Cocoa-nut or of a Ricinus seed absorbs the endosperm, a 

 hundred or a thousand times larger than itself, is it clearly apparent how extremely 

 insignificant is the work done by insectivorous plants when they absorb the 

 contents of small gnats and 

 flies. Again, there is nothing 

 peculiar, as many observers 

 have believed, in the fact that 

 the insectivorous plants absorb 

 nutritive substances through 

 their leaves, since the seedlings 

 of all Conifers, Monocotyle- 

 dons, and those Dicotyledons 

 which are provided with en- 

 dosperm, do exactly the same. 

 The marvel of the insectivorous 

 plants thus lies by no means 

 in this point, but exclusively 

 in the fact that leaves which 

 contain chlorophyll, and are 

 moreover capable of assimila- 

 tion, are enabled, by means 

 of very peculiar relations of 

 organisation and irritabilities, 

 to seize small animals, and 

 exhaust their proteid sub- 

 stance. In this again, how- 

 ever, the important point is 

 the seizing arrangement, and 

 not the fact of the absorption 

 of organic substance; since 

 numerous Fungi {Saprolegnim, 

 SphtsricB, etc.) nesde on and 



in living animals, kill them, and convert the substance of their bodies into fungus- 

 substance. 



Referring to the works mentioned in the notes ^ as regards the general biology. 



FIG. Z45 — Leaf of Diomza jniiscipitla after the removal of the 

 anterior half of the lamina bb ; the posterior half presents its 

 internal (upper) side with the three sensitive hairs ; c the wmged 

 petiole (slightly enlarged). 



' Charles Darwin, 'Insectivorous Plants' (London, 1875). Oscar Drade, 'Die insectenfressen- 

 den PJlanzen,' in Schenk's 'Handbuch der Bot.' 1881 (p. 113), where the further literature is intro- 

 duced. The first experimental researches on the digestion of animal substance were carried out, 

 according to Drude, by the American Kanby (1866) on Dionaa, and by Mrs. Treat (1871) on 

 Drosera. The first comprehensive description was given by Hooker in an address to the British 

 Association at Belfast (1874). Darwin's veiy thorough work, cited above, appeared in 1875. 



