42 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



Small drops were placed on the disc of the leaves ; 

 very minute drops were gently placed on one or 

 more of the exterior tentacles ; and whole leaves were 

 cut off and immersed in the solutions. In all ways 

 the results harmonised. How exceedingly sensitive the 

 leaves were to some of these solutions may be inferred 

 from their great dilution. As an illustration, it was 

 stated that five thousand fluid ounces would more 

 than fill a thirty-one gallon cask, and that to this 

 large body of water one grain of the salt was added ; 

 only half a drachm, or thirty minims, of the solution 

 being poured over a leaf. " Yet this amount sufficed 

 to cause the inflection of almost every tentacle, and 

 often of the blade of the leaf." 



The solution of many salts, acids, and alkaloids, 

 were tried, and produced in some instances unex- 

 pected results, inasmuch as some substances which 

 are wholly harmless to animals were poisonous to the 

 plant, and others which are poisonous in their effects 

 upon animals were almost inert upon the Sundew. 



(Abundant evidence was supplied that the fluids must 

 have been absorbed by the glands, and their influence 

 transmitted to other tentacles which were not 

 touched. In cases of poisoning, for instance, it must 

 be conceded that the deleterious substance was 

 absorbed, for the parts became blackened, and all the 

 phenomena of poisoning were exhibited. It is but 

 fair to conclude that, if deleterious substances actually 



