28 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



an its nature, becoming more acid. This acidulation 

 takes place before the glands have touched the object 

 on the leaf, and so long as the tentacles remain bent 

 •downwards does the secretion continue to exude, 

 and continues also its acid properties. It might be 

 shown here, as the result of experiment, that frag- 

 ments of meat, and other substances, placed on the 

 leaves and submitted to the action of this secretion, 

 remained clean and free from putrefaction, whilst other 

 fragments of equal size, placed at the same time on 

 ■damp moss, became mouldy, or disintegrated, and 

 swarming with infusoria. This fact indicates some 

 preservative power in the acidulated secretion. 



It has been demonstrated that most insects are 

 killed within a quarter of an hour from the time of 

 their being caught. The respiration of insects is ac- 

 complished by means of breathing pores, or tracheae, 

 ■on the surface of their bodies. The viscid secretion 

 from the glands tends to close and choke up these 

 tracheae, so that the insect is killed by suffocation. 

 Every additional gland, as it closes over the captured 

 insect, contributes of its viscid secretion, which soon 

 bathes and involves the little insect, so that respira- 

 tion is impossible. The struggles of an insect when 

 first caught only serve to touch and stimulate other 

 tentacles, and increase the number of those which 

 close over it,. and pour forth their viscid secretion, 

 and thus hasten its death. 



