FISHES ENTRAPPED 231 



bladder trap, and its tail by another, the body of 

 the fish forming a connecting link between the two 

 bladders. This curious circumstance, with fuller 

 details, formed the subject of an article by Mr 

 Simms which was published in Nature of July 24, 

 1884, accompanied by an illustration. Professor 

 Moseley stated he had not been able to see a fish in 

 the actual process of being trapped, nor to find one 

 recently caught and showing signs of life ; all those 

 found trapped were already dead. 



Curiously enough, Darwin, in his account of the 

 trapping of Crustacea and worms by Utricularia, 

 states that he also had been unable to observe the 

 actual process of trapping, although Mrs Treat, of 

 New Jersey, had often witnessed it. Professor 

 Moseley thought that the mechanism by which the 

 small fish became so deeply imbedded was to be 

 explained by the fact, observed by Darwin, that 

 the longer of the two pairs of projections composing 

 the quadrifid processes by which the bladders of 

 the Utricularia are lined project obliquely inwards, 

 and towards the posterior end of the bladder. 

 These oblique processes, set all towards the hinder 

 end of the bladder, look as if they must act together 

 with the spring valves of the mouth of the bladder 

 in utilising each fresh struggle of the capture for 

 the purpose of pushing it further and further in- 

 wards. Darwin had failed to detect any digestive 

 process in Utricularia, and on cutting open longi- 

 tudinally some of the bladders containing the heads 

 and foreparts of fishes, Moseley found the tissues of 

 the fish in a more or less slimy deliquescent con- 



