IS THE VALVE OF UTRICULARIA SENSITIVE? 155 



Over the inner surface of the utricle — like the other 

 species — are scattered numerous glands, which Mr. Dar- 

 win has named quadrifid processes, from the fact that 

 the glands radiate from a central cell in the form of 

 arms, four in number (Fig. 11). In this species the 



FIG. 11. — QUADKU'ID PROCESSES. 



arms are about of equal length. Near the valve, and 

 close to where the walls of the utricle join together, 

 we find cells with only two arms — bifid processes — and 

 intermingled with these we occasionally see a cell with 

 only one arm, no way different from the others except, 

 in the lesser number of arms. Mr. Darwin says these 

 glands are absorbents, but he doubts if they ever se- 

 crete. Around the edge of the valve that extends into 

 the utricle is a thick fringe of hairs or glands, all point- 

 ing inward, and so do not prevent anything from enter- 

 ing through the valve ; but we can see that they pre- 

 vent an exit. These are all the glands I find in this 

 species, except a few oblong ones which have no pedi- 

 cels, and are embedded in the smaller cells near where 

 the valve lies. 



In order to make it clear how my observations were 



