170 HOME STUDIES IN NATUKE. 



shows that the plants readily digested small insects and 

 small parts of large ones, also tiny bits of fresh meat, 

 and milk and fresh blood of animals. 



But my main work for more than two months was 

 on the larger species of Pinguicula — P. lutea and P. 

 elatior. Unlike P. pumila, both of the above species 

 have rather large and strong roots, and are firmly fixed 

 in damp soil. They have from twenty -five to thirty 

 leaves, often three inches in length, lying flat on the 

 ground in a rosette. The leaves are all naturally in- 

 curved, g (Fig. 14) is an outline of a leaf of P. lutea 

 showing incurvation. Under the microscope we find 

 precisely the same organs — spiral threads, glands, etc. — 

 that we find in the smaller species. 



The flower stems of both these large species are often 

 twelve or fourteen inches in length, and, like the leaves, 

 they are sensitive, and I find the same spiral coils that 

 I see in the leaves extending along their entire length. 



In the morning, if the flower stems are not swayed 

 about by the wind, nearly all will be found to have a 

 short curve near the calyx, sp as to bring the flower to 

 face the east, and the spur points to the west ; in the 

 evening it is reversed, and at noon the flower looks up 

 and the spur points downward. 



The plants with which I experimented were set in 

 boxes of wet sand, so it was an easy matter to turn 

 them around when they were facing the east, and bring 

 the back of the flower to the sun. I often turned them 

 in this manner, and recorded the time it took for them 



