98 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



of their wall being exposed at the surface, and the 

 remainder dipping below the epidermis into the sub- 

 jacent tissue. These glands are very inconspicuous 

 when the tissue is in its natural condition, but if the 

 colour is discharged from a portion of the plant by- 

 means of alcohol they are at once apparent, and their 

 contents are seen to be different from that of the. 

 surrounding cells, the chlorophyll corpuscles being 

 absent. These I take to be glands, but what their 

 function may be, if any, is rather difficult to imagine." 1 

 We have given these details thus minutely because 

 everything connected with the structure of these 

 plants is of interest so long as the mystery is unex- 

 plained wherefore they catch insects. The Darling- 

 tonia, as the Sarracenia, gives no indication of pos- 

 sessing the faculty of digestion, and the remarks we 

 have made on the latter will apply equally to the 

 former. Whatever the future verdict may be, whether 

 guilty or not guilty of being carnivorous, they still 

 would claim a place in this work for the singularity 

 of their appearance, the extraordinary form of their 

 flowers, their peculiar trumpet-shaped receptacles, 

 their fly-catching arrangements, and the mystery 

 which enshrouds their domestic economy. 



1 W. H. Gilburt, "Journal of Quekett Microscopical Club," 

 vi.,p. 158. 



