Guar. IX, CAMPHOR. 209 
able time in a very strong solution. On the whole, it seems 
that the poison of the cobra acts far more injuriously on the 
protoplasm of the higher animals than on that of Drosera. 
There is one other point which may be noticed. I have occa- 
sionally observed that the drops of secretion round the glands 
were rendered somewhat turbid by certain solutions, and more 
especially by some acids, a film being formed on the surfaces of 
the drops; but I never saw this effect produced in so con- 
spicuous a manner as by the cobra poison. When the stronger 
solution was employed, the drops appeared in 10 m. like little 
white rounded clouds. After 48 hrs. the secretion was changed 
into threads and sheets of a membranous substance, including 
minute granules of various sizes. 
Camphor.—Some scraped camphor was left for a day in a bottle 
with distilled water, and then filtered. A solution thus made is 
said to contain 45 of its weight of camphor; it smelt and 
tasted of this substance. Ten leaves were immersed in this 
solution; after 15 m. five of them were well inflected, two 
showing a first trace of movement in 11 m. and 12 m.; the 
sixth leaf did not begin to move until 15 m. had elapsed, but 
was fairly well inflected in 17 m. and quite closed in 24 m.; the 
seventh began to move in 17 m., and was completely shut in 
26 m. The eighth, ninth, and tenth leaves were old and of 
a very dark red colour, and these were not inflected after an 
immersion of 24 hrs.; so that in making experiments with 
camphor it is necessary to avoid such leaves. Some of these 
leaves, on being left in the solution for 4 hrs., became of a 
rather dingy pink colour, and secreted much mucus; although 
their tentacles were closely inflected, the protoplasm within the 
cells was not at all aggregated. On another occasion, however, 
after a longer immersion of 24 hrs., there was well marked 
aggregation. A solution made. by adding two drops of campho- 
rated spirits to an ounce of water did not act on one leaf; 
whereas thirty minims added to an ounce of water acted on two 
leaves immersed together. 
M. Vogel has shown* that the flowers of various plants do not 
wither so soon when their stems are placed in a solution of cam- 
phor as when in water; and that if already slightly withered, 
they recover more quickly. The germination of certain seeds is 
also accelerated by the solution. So that camphor acts as a 
stimulant, and it is the only known stimulant for plants. I 
* ¢Gardener’s Chronicle, 1874, p. 671. Nearly similar observations 
wore made in 1798 by B. 8. Barton. 
