MINOR CARNIVORA. 139 



slightest trace of any digestive process having com- 

 menced. 



Although there is no proof of digestion there is 

 evidence furnished of absorption by the four-pronged 

 processes. In bladders in which the animal contents 

 were broken up and decayed, the processes exhibited 

 the phenomenon of aggregation, and this we have 

 been led by preceding experience to regard as an 

 evidence of the absorption of soluble animal matter. 

 The same kind of processes in bladders which con- 

 tained no insects, or in which they were still fresh 

 and unchanged, exhibited no signs of aggregation. 

 As in previous experiments, fluids of a nitrogenous 

 character were applied to the quadrifid processes, and, 

 although withqut previous sign of aggregation, yet 

 aggregation subsequently took place. The conclu- 

 sion to be derived from these experiments is, that 

 although the bladders do not digest animal food, yet, 

 after such substances have decayed and become 

 soluble, they are absorbed by the four-pronged pro- 

 cesses, causing in. them the characteristic aggregation. 



There are many bladderworts besides the British 

 species. The Rev. Charles Kingsley recognised them 

 amongst the vegetation of the West Indies. " Our 

 English bladderworts, as everybody knows, float in 

 stagnant water on tangles of hair-like leaves, some- 

 thing like those of the water ranunculus, but fur- 

 nished with innumerable tiny bladders ; and this raft 



