332: UTRICULARIA NEGLECTA,  [(war. XVII. 
them by tho quadrifid and bifid processes. The extremely 
delicate nature of the membrane of which these processes 
are formed, and the large surface which they expose, owing 
to their number crowded over the whole interior of the 
bladder, are circumstances all favouring the process of 
absorption. Many perfectly clean bladders which had never 
caught any prey were opened, and nothing could be distin- 
guished with a No. 8 object-glass of Hartnack within the 
delicate, structureless protoplasmic lining of the arms, ex- 
cepting in each a single yellowish particle or modified 
nucleus. Sometimes two or even three such particles were 
present; but in this case traces of decaying matter could 
generally be detected. On the other hand, in bladders con- 
taining either one large or several small decayed animals, 
the processes presented a widely different appearance. Six 
such bladders were carefully examined; one contained an 
elongated, coiled-up larva; another a single large entomo- 
stracan crustacean, and the others from two to five smaller 
ones, all in a decayed state. In these six bladders, a large 
number of the quadrifid processes contained transparent, 
often yellowish, more or less confluent, spherical or irregu- 
larly shaped, masses of matter. Some of the processes, 
however, contained only fine granular matter, the particles 
of which were so small that they could not be defined clearly 
with No. 8 of Hartnack. The delicate layer of protoplasm 
lining their walls was in some cases a little shrunk.* On three 
occasions the above small masses of matter were observed 
and sketched at short intervals of time; and they certainly 
changed their positions relatively to each other and to the 
walls of the arms. Separate masses sometimes became con- 
fluent, and then again divided. A single little mass would 
send out a projection, which after a time separated itself. 
Hence there could be no doubt that these masses consisted of 
protoplasm. Bearing in mind that many clean bladders 
were examined with equal care, and that these presented no 
such appearance, we may confidently believe that the pro- 
* [Schimper (loc. cit. p. 247) ob- 
served a marked difference in the 
appearance of the hairs in those 
bladders of U. cornuta which contain 
captured prey. The protoplasm is 
sometimes more granular than in 
empty bladders, but the commonest 
change is a collection of the pro- 
toplasm in the axis of the cell where 
it is suspended by radiating strands 
to the delicate layer of protoplasm 
lining the walls.—F. D.] 
