Cuar. LJ ACTION OF THE PARTS. 138 
successive days, and over bits of bone for ten successive 
days. 
The secretion seems to possess, like the gastric juice of 
the higher animals, some antiseptic power. During very warm 
weather I placed close together two equal-sized bits of raw 
meat, one on a leaf of the Drosera, and the other surrounded 
by wet moss. They were thus left for 48 hrs. and then 
examined. The bit on the moss swarmed with infusoria, 
and was so much decayed that the transverse strie on the 
muscular fibres could no longer be clearly distinguished ; 
whilst the bit on the leaf, which was bathed by the secre- 
tion, was free from infusoria, and its striae were perfectly 
distinct in the central and undissolved portion. In like 
manner small cubes of albumen and cheese placed on wet 
moss became threaded with filaments of mould, and had 
their surfaces slightly discoloured and disintegrated ; whilst 
those on the leaves of Drosera remained clean, the albumen 
-being changed into transparent fluid. 
As soon as tentacles, which have remained closely inflected 
during several days over an object, begin to re-expand, their 
glands secrete less freely, or cease to secrete, and are left 
dry. In this state they are covered with a film of whitish, 
semi-fibrous matter, which was held in solution by the 
secretion. The drying of the glands during the act of 
re-expansion is of some little service to the plant; for I have 
often observed that objects adhering to the leaves could then 
be blown away by a breath of air; the leaves being thus 
left unencumbered and free for future action. Nevertheless, 
it often happens that all the glands do not become completely 
dry ; and in this case delicate objects, such as fragile insects, 
are sometimes torn by the re-expansion of the tentacles into 
fragments, which remain scattered all over the leaf. After 
the re-expansion is complete, the glands quickly begin to 
re-secrete, and, as soon as full-sized drops are formed, the 
tentacles are ready to clasp a new object. 
When an insect alights on the central disc, it is instantly 
entangled by the viscid secretion, and the surrounding 
tentacles after a time begin to bend, and ultimately clasp it 
on all sides. Insects are generally killed, according to 
Dr. Nitschke, in about a quarter of an hour, owing to their 
tracheee being closed by the secretion. If an insect adheres 
to only a few of the glands of the exterior tentacles, these 
soon become inflected and carry their prey to the tentacles 
