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FUETHEE OBSEEVATIONS ON THE BIOLOGY OF 
BOBIDULA L. 
By E. Maeloth, Ph.D., M.A., F.E.S.S.Af. 
(Eead May 18, 1910.) 
The genus Boridula, which consists of two species only, viz., B. 
dentata L. and B. Gorgonias PL, was until recently universally considered 
to belong to the order Droseraceae. In his monograph of the order 
Droseraceae Diels,* however, explained why in his opinion it could not 
remain there, and Engler f placed it into the order Ochnaceae, while 
Marloth | treated it as a separate family. On the other hand, Wettstein § 
considers that it is just as much out of place among the Ochnaceae, and 
prefers to retain it in Droseraceae. 
The more, however, one studies the structure of the flower and fruit, 
the less allied does this genus appear to Droseraceae. In fact its 
inclusion in this order seems to have been due in the first place, as 
Diels suggests, more to its apparent insectivorous habits than its floral 
structure. 
The capturing of insects by the plants is so conspicuous, that the 
shrublets generally show numerous remains, parts as well as entire 
corpses, of all classes of insects occurring in the neighbourhood — flies and 
hemiptera, bees and wasps, beetles, moths and butterflies — and as some 
of these are occasionally of considerable size and weight, sometimes 
measuring an inch in length, the efficiency of the viscid secretion of the 
glands is obvious enough. 
For some time, however, I have had my doubts as to the nature and 
function of this secretion, but without experimental proof one could not 
very well challenge the universal opinion on the subject. 
* Diels, L., Das Pflanzenreich, Teil iv., No. 112, p. 51, 1906. 
t Engler, A., Syllabus, v. Auflage, p. 164, 1907. 
X Marloth, K., Das Kapland, p. 360, 1908. 
§ von Wettstein, R., Handbuch d. System. Botanik, p. 299, 1908. 
