328 ALDROVANDA VESICULOSA. Cuar. XIV 
agrees with what I have observed under similar cir- 
stances with Utricularia. 
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, var. australis —Dried leaves of 
this plant from Queensland in Australia were sent 
me by Prof. Oliver from the herbarium at Kew 
Whether it ought to be considered as a distinct species 
or a variety, cannot be told until the flowers are ex- 
amined by a botanist. The projections at the upper 
end of the petiole (from four to six in number) are 
considerably longer relatively to the blade, and much 
more attenuated than those of the European form. 
They are thickly covered for a considerable space 
near their extremities with the upcurved prickles, 
which are quite absent in the latter form; and they 
generally bear on their tips two or three straight 
prickles instead of one. The bilobed leaf appears 
also to be rather larger and somewhat broader, with 
the pedicel by which it is attached to the upper end 
of the petiole a little longer. The points on the 
infolded margins likewise differ; they have narrower 
bases, and are more pointed; long and short points 
also alternate with much more regularity than in the 
European form. The glands and sensitive hairs are 
similar in the two forms. No quadrifid processes 
could be seen on several of the leaves, but I do not 
doubt that they were present, though indistinguish- 
able from their delicacy and from having shrivelled ; 
for they were quite distinct on one leaf under circum- 
stances presently to be mentioned. 
Some of the closed leaves contained no prey, but in 
one there was a rather large beetle, which from its 
flattened tibize I suppose was an aquatic species, but 
was not allied to Colymbetes. All the softer tissues 
of this beetle were completely dissolved, and its chiti- 
nous integuments were as clean as if they had been 
