Cuar. XV.] THEIR POWER OF ABSORPTION. 279 
insects, or for any other purpose, and yet have the power of 
absorbing. I regret that in the following cases I did not 
try whether the secretion could digest or render soluble 
animal substances, but such experiments would have been 
difficult on account of the small size of the glands and the 
small amount of secretion. We shall see in the next chapter 
that the secretion from the glandular hairs of Pinguicula 
certainly dissolves animal matter. 
Saxifraga umbrosa.—The flower-peduncles and petioles of the 
leaves are clothed with short hairs, bearing pink-coloured glands, 
formed of several polygonal cells, with their pedicels divided by partitions 
into distinct cells, which are generally colourless, but sometimes pink. 
The glands secrete a yellowish viscid fluid, by which minute Diptera 
are sometimes, though not often, caught.* The cells of the glands 
contain bright pink fluid, charged with granules or with globular 
masses of pinkish pulpy matter. This matter must be protoplasm, 
for it is seen to undergo slow but incessant changes of form if a gland 
be placed in a drop of water and examined. Similar movements were 
observed after glands had been immersed in water for 1, 3, 5, 18, and 
27 hrs. Even after this latter period the glands retained their bright 
ae colour; and the protoplasm within their cells did not appear to 
have become more aggregated. The continually changing forms of 
the little masses of protoplasm are not due to the absorption of water, 
as they were seen in glands kept dry. 
A flower-stem, still attached to a plant, was bent (May 29) so as to 
remain immersed for 23 hrs. 30 m. in a strong infusion of raw meat. 
The colour of the contents of the glands was slightly changed, being 
now of a duller and more purple tint than before. The contents also 
appeared more aggregated, for the spaces between the little masses of 
protoplasm were wider; but this latter result did not follow in some 
other and similar experiments. The masses seemed to change their 
forms more rapidly than did those in water; so that the cells had a 
different appearance every four or five minutes. Elongated masses 
became in the course of one or two minutes spherical ; and spherical 
ones drew themselves out and united with others. Minute masses 
rapidly increased in size, and three distinct ones were seen to unite. 
The movements were, in short, exactly like those described in the case 
of Drosera, The cells of the pedicels were not affected by the infusion ; 
nor were they in the following experiment. 
Another flower-stem was placed in the same manner and for the 
same length of time in a solution of one part of nitrate of ammonia to 
* In the case of Saxifraga tri- and in almost every instance remnants 
dactylites, Mr. Druce says (‘Phar- of insects adhered to the leaves. So 
maceutical Journal,’ May 1875) that it is, as I hear from a friend, with 
he examined some dozens of plants, this plant in Ireland, 
