DROSERA. 179 



folded and the flies had ceased to struggle. By half- 

 past two four leaves had 6ach folded around a fly. The 

 leaf folds from the apex to the petiole, after the man- 

 ner of its vernation. I tried mineral substances, bits 

 of dry chalk, magnesia, and pebbles. In twenty -four 

 hours neither the leaves nor the tentacles had made 

 any move like clasping these articles. I wet a piece of 

 chalk in water, and in less than an hour the tentacles 

 were curving about it, but soon unfolded again, leaving 

 the chalk free on the blade of the leaf. 



The tentacles around the edge of the leaf of D. ro- 

 tundifolia are longer than on those of D. longifolia, but 

 the leaf of the former does not fold around a fly as it 

 does in the latter — simply the tentacles curve around 

 the object, the glands touching the substance, like sd 

 many mouths receiving nourishment. 



At 10.30 a.m. I placed raw beef on some leaves of 

 D. rotundifolia ; by one o'clock the inner tentacles were 

 curving about it, and the longer ones on the outer 

 edge of the leaf were slowly curving upward. By nine 

 o'clock in the evening all the tentacles on three of the 

 most vigorous leaves were clasping the beef, almost hid- 

 ing it from sight, while an equally vigorous leaf made 

 no move towards clasping a bit of dry chalk. 



About ten o'clock in the morning I placed bits of 

 raw apple on some of the leaves of the last-named spe- 

 cies ; by nine o'clock in the evening part of the tenta- 

 cles were clasping it, but not so closely as the beef. 

 By ten o'clock next day, twenty-four hours, nearly all 



