Cuar. XIU, SECRETION AND ABSORPTION. 297 
leaf, the plant being now covered with a bell-glass. 
After 24 hrs. the damp meat had excited some acid 
secretion, and the lobes at this end of the leaf were 
almost shut. At the other end, where the damp gela- 
tine lay, the leaf was still quite open, nor had any 
secretion been excited; so that, as with Drosera, gela- 
tine is not nearly so exciting a substance as meat. 
The secretion beneath the meat was tested by push- 
ing a strip of litmus paper under it (the filaments not 
being touched), and this slight stimulus caused the 
leaf to shut. On the eleventh day it reopened; but 
the end where the gelatine lay, expanded several hours 
before the opposite end with the meat. 
A second bit of roast meat, which appeared dry, 
though it had not been purposely dried, was left for 
24 hrs. on a leaf, caused neither movement nor secre- 
tion. The plant in its pot was now covered with a 
bell-glass, and the meat absorbed some moisture from 
the air; this sufficed to excite acid secretion, and by 
the next morning the leaf was closely shut. A third 
bit of meat, dried so as to be quite brittle, was placed 
on a leaf under a bell-glass, and this also became in 
24 hrs. slightly damp, and excited some acid secretion, 
but no movement. 
A rather large piece of perfectly dry albumen was 
left at one end of a leaf for 24 hrs. without any 
effect. It was then soaked for a few minutes in 
water, rolled about on blotting paper, and replaced 
on the leaf; in 9 hrs. some slightly acid secretion 
was excited, and in 24 hrs. this end of the leaf was 
partially closed. The bit of albumen, which was now 
surrounded by much secretion, was gently removed, 
and although no filament was touched, the lobes 
closed. In this and the previous case, it appears that 
the absorption of animal matter by the glands renders 
