Page:Insectivorous Plants, Darwin, 1899.djvu/61

 before. It appeared indeed as if the stream of protoplasm was strengthened by the action of the carbonate, but it was impossible to ascertain whether this was really the case. The bag-like masses, when once formed, soon begin to glide slowly round the cells, sometimes sending out projections which separate into little spheres; other spheres appear in the fluid surrounding the bags, and these travel much more quickly. That the small spheres are separate is often shown by sometimes one and then another travelling in advance, and sometimes they revolve round each other. I have occasionally seen spheres of this kind proceeding up and down the same side of a cell, instead of round it. The bag-like masses after a time generally divide into two rounded or oval masses, and these undergo the changes shown in Figs. 7 and 8. At other times spheres appear within the bags; and these coalesce and separate in an endless cycle of change.

After leaves have been left for several hours in a solution of the carbonate, and complete aggregation has been effected, the stream of protoplasm on the walls of the cells ceases to be visible; I observed this fact repeatedly, but will give only one instance. A pale purple leaf was placed in a few drops of a solution of one part to 292 of water, and in 2 hrs. some fine purple spheres were formed in the upper cells of the pedicels, the stream of protoplasm round their walls being still quite distinct; but after an additional 4 hrs., during which time many more spheres were formed, the stream was no longer distinguishable on the most careful examination; and this no doubt was due to the contained granules having become united with the spheres, so that nothing was left by which the movement of the limpid protoplasm could be perceived. But minute free spheres still travelled up and down the cells, showing that there was still a current. So it was nest morning, after 22 hrs., by which time some new minute spheres had been formed; these oscillated from side to side and changed their positions, proving that the current had not ceased, though no stream of protoplasm was visible. On another occasion, however, a stream was seen flowing round the cell-walls of a vigorous, dark-coloured leaf, after it had been left for 24 hrs. in a rather stronger solution, namely, of one part of the carbonate to 218 of water. This leaf, therefore, was not much or at all injured by an immersion for this length of time in the above solution of two grains to the ounce; and, on being afterwards left for 24 hrs. in water, the aggregated masses in many of the cells were redissolved, in the same manner as occurs with leaves in a state of nature when they re-expand after having caught insects.

In a leaf which had been left for 22 hrs. in a solution of one part of the carbonate to 292 of water, some spheres of protoplasm (formed by the self-division of a bag-like mass) were gently pressed beneath a covering glass, and then examined under a high power. They were now distinctly divided by well-defined radiating fissures, or were broken up into separate fragments with sharp edges, and they were solid to the centre. In the larger broken spheres the central part was more opaque, darker-coloured, and less brittle than