62 
Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
Si, faint film of transparent fluid, which became just visible when the 
leaves were held against the light, although, in order to be quite sure that 
the absence of drops on the glands was not due to the drying effect of the 
heat of the day, I had arranged my own visit in such a way that I 
reached the locality just as the first rays of the rising sun were touching 
the plants. 
The other species of Boridula, viz., B. Gorgonias, which occurs on the 
mountains near the river Zondereende and in the Steenbrass river valley, 
does not differ in the structure of its glands or their behaviour against 
reagents from B. dentata. 
The question will be asked, what may be the function of this viscid 
fluid ? My experiments have shown that it does not possess any digestive 
properties, hence I consider it to be a protection against creeping insects, 
such as snails, caterpillars, earwigs, &c., and I think that the presence of 
the capsids (Pameridea) supports this view. These capsids live on the 
juice of the younger shoots and leaves, and during the flowering season on 
the saccharine contents of the connectives of the anthers, proving that the 
leaves do not contain any protective substance, at least as far as these 
insects are concerned. 
The capturing of insects is evidently merely accidental, for whether 
they alight on the shrub or are driven against it by the wind, they 
become entangled in the viscid fluid and perish, either slowly, as on 
B. Gorgonias^ or quickly as on B. dentata, being killed in the latter case 
by the spiders, which inhabit every bush of this species. The genus 
Boridida is therefore to be excluded from the list of insectivorous 
plants. 
With regard to its systematic relationship, I find that it would occupy 
an anomalous position in Ochnacese, and consequently prefer to establish 
a separate family for Boridida and Biblis, viz., Eoridulace^, which 
should be placed in the neighbourhood of Saxifragaceae and 
Pittosporacese. 
