134 DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. Cuar. VL 
areolar tissue, or the fibrous basis of bone. It is not 
known how long an animal would survive if fed on 
' fibrin alone, but Dr. Sanderson has no doubt longer 
than on gelatine, and it would be hardly rash to pre- 
dict, judging from the effects on Drosera, that albu- 
men would be found more nutritious than fibrin. 
Globulin likewise belongs to the Proteids, forming 
another sub-group, and this substance, though con- 
taining some matter which excited Drosera rather 
strongly, was hardly attacked by the secretion, and 
was very little or very slowly attacked by gastric 
juice. How far globulin would be nutritious to ani- 
mals is not known. We thus see how differently the 
above specified several digestible substances act on 
Drosera; and we may infer, as highly probable, that 
they would in like manner be nutritious in very dif- 
ferent degrees both to Drosera and to animals. 
The glands of Drosera absorb matter from living 
seeds, which are injured or killed by the secretion. 
They likewise absorb matter from pollen, and from 
tresh leaves; and this is notoriously the case with 
the stomachs of vegetable-feeding animals. Drosera 
is properly an insectivorous plant; but as pollen 
cannot fail to be often blown on to the glands, as 
will occasionally the seeds and leaves of surrounding 
plants, Drosera is, to a certain extent, a vegetable- 
feeder. 
Finally, the experiments recorded in this chapter 
show us that there is a remarkable accordance in the 
power of digestion between the gastric juice of ani- 
mals with its pepsin and hydrochloric acid and the 
secretion of Drosera with its ferment and acid belong- 
ing to the acetic series. We can, therefore, hardly 
doubt that the ferment in both cases is closely similar, 
