330 ALDROVANDA VESICULOSA. Cuap. XIV. 
upcurved prickles; they terminate also in two straight 
little prickles. The bilobed leaves are, I believe, 
larger and certainly broader even than those of the 
Australian form; so that the. greater convexity of 
their margins was conspicuous. The length of an open 
leaf being taken at 100, the breadth of the Bengal 
form is nearly 173, of the Australian form 147, and 
of the German 134. The points on the’ infolded 
margins are like those in the Australian form. Of the 
few leaves which were examined, three contained 
entomostracan crustaceans. 
Concluding Remarks—The leaves of the three fore- 
going closely allied species or varieties are manifestly 
adapted for catching living creatures. With respect 
to the functions of the several parts, there can be little 
doubt that the long jointed hairs are sensitive, like 
those of Dionza, and that, when touched, they cause 
the lobes to close. That the glands secrete a true 
digestive fluid and afterwards absorb the digested 
matter, is highly probable from the analogy of Dio- 
nea,—from the limpid fluid within their cells being 
aggregated into spherical masses, after they had 
absorbed an infusion of raw meat,—from their opaque 
and granular condition in the leaf, which had enclosed 
a beetle for a long time,—and from the clean con- 
dition of the integuments of this insect, as well as 
of crustaceans (as described by Cohn), which have 
been long captured. Again, from the effect produced 
on the quadrifid processes by an immersion for 24 hrs. 
in a solution of urea,—from the presence of brown 
granular matter within the quadrifids of the leaf in 
which the beetle had been caught,—and from the 
analogy of Utricularia,—it is probable that these pro- 
cesses absorb excrementitious and decaying animal 
matter. It is a more curious fact that the points on 
