18 Life and Immortality. 
the rest of the leaf being green. No glands are found upon 
the spikes or upon the foliaceous footstalk. From twenty 
to thirty polygonal cells, filled with purple fluid, constitute 
each gland. They are convex above, somewhat flattened 
underneath, and stand on very short pedicels, into which 
spiral vessels do not enter. They have the power of secre- 
tion under certain influences, and also that of absorption. 
Minute octofid projections, of a reddish-brown color, are 
scattered in considerable numbers over the footstalk, the 
backs of the leaves and the spikes, with a few on the upper 
surfaces of the lobes. 
The sensitive filaments, which are a little more than one- 
twentieth of an inch in length, and thin, delicate and taper- 
ing to a point, are formed of several rows of elongated cells, 
filled with a purplish fluid. They are sometimes bifid or 
even trifid at the apex, and towards the base there is a con- 
striction formed of broader cells, and beneath the constric- 
tion an articulation, supported on an enlarged base, consist- 
ing of differently shaped polygonal cells. As the filaments 
project at right angles to the surface of the leaf, they would 
have been in danger of being broken off whenever the lobes 
closed together had it not been for the articulation, which 
allows them to bend flat down. So exquisitely sensitive are 
these filaments, from their tips to their bases, to a momentary 
touch, that it is hardly possible to touch them even so lightly 
or quickly with any hard object without causing the lobes to 
close, but a piece of delicate human hair, two and a-half 
inches in length, held dangling over a filament soas to touch 
it, or pinches of fine wheaten flour, dropped from a height, 
produce no effect. Though not glandular, and hence inca- 
pable of secretion, yet the filaments by their sensitiveness to 
a momentary touch, which is followed by the rapid closure 
of the lobes of the leaf, assure to Dionza the necessary 
supply of insect food for all its wants. 
Inorganic bodies, even of large size, such as bits of 
stone, glass and such like, or organic bodies not containing 
