MINOR CARNIVORA. 133 



projecting bristles, not unlike antennas, and, in fact, 

 the bladder resembles some fixed aquatic insect, or 

 some such crustacean as a water-flea anchored upon 

 the leaf. The entrance to the bladder is at the apex, 

 which is closed by a valve opening inwards. The 

 .surface of the valve is furnished with numerous 

 glands, and four oblique bristles. The whole inner 

 surface of the bladder is covered with projections, 

 somewhat like stellate hairs, with four arms, two 

 longer directed obliquely backwards, and two shorter 

 ■ones directed forwards. Each arm encloses generally 

 a. minute brown particle in constant motion. 



That the use of these bladders is to capture insects 

 may be inferred from the fact of their constant 

 presence when the conditions are favourable. In 

 seventeen bladders (of Utricularia neglecta) contain- 

 ing prey of some kind, eight of them contained 

 -entomostraca, those lively little crustaceans so com- 

 mon in stagnant water, three enclosed insects, and 

 six the remains of decayed animals past identification. 

 In five bladders, which appeared full, from four to ten 

 crustaceans were found in each. Professor Cohn 

 placed a plant of Utricularia in a vessel of water 

 swarming with crustaceans, and in the morning some 

 of these were observed entrapped in the bladders, in 

 which prison they remained alive for several days. 



The entrance to the bladders is effected by bending 

 the valve inwards, which from its elasticity instantly 



