232 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. Cuar. & 
cases; but this is not strictly true, for in. three in- 
stances a little syrup was added to the bits of raw 
meat on the backs of leaves, in order to keep them 
damp for a time; and after 36 hrs. there was a trace 
of reflexion in the tentacles of one leaf, and cer- 
tainly in the blade of another. After twelve addi- 
tional hours, the glands began to dry, and all three 
leaves seemed much injured. Four leaves were then 
placed under a bell-glass, with their footstalks in 
water, with drops of syrup on their backs, but without 
any meat. Two of these leaves, after a day, had a few 
tentacles reflexed. The drops had now increased con- 
siderably in size, from having imbibed moisture, so 
as to trickle down the backs of the tentacles and 
footstalks. On the second day, one leaf had its 
blade much reflexed; on the third day the tentacles 
of two were much reflexed, as well as the blades of 
all four to a greater or less degree. The upper side 
of one leaf, instead of being, as at first, slightly : 
concave, now presented a strong convexity upwards. 
Even on the fifth day the leaves did not appear dead. 
Now, as sugar does not in the least excite Drosera, 
we may safely attribute the reflexion of the blades 
and tentacles of the above leaves to exosmose from 
the cells which were in contact with the syrup, and 
their consequent contraction. When drops of syrup 
are placed on the leaves of plants with their roots still 
in damp earth, no inflection ensues, for the roots, no 
doubt, pump up water as quickly as it is lost by 
exosmose. But if cut-off leaves are immersed in 
syrup, or in any dense fluid, the tentacles are greaily, 
though irregularly, inflected, some of them assuming 
the shape of corkscrews; and the leaves soon become 
flaccid. If they are now immersed in a fluid of low 
specific gravity, the tentacles re-expand. From these 
