Page:Insectivorous Plants, Darwin, 1899.djvu/80

 cept sixteen or seventeen, were more or less inflected; but the leaf was so much injured that it never re-expanded. The other leaf, after having been left for half an hour in cold water, was put into the strong solution, but no inflection ensued ; the glands, however, were blackened, and in some cells there was a little aggregation, the spheres of protoplasm being extremely small; in other cells, especially in the exterior tentacles, there was much greenish-brown pulpy matter.

Experiment 8.—A leaf was plunged and waved about for a few minutes in water at 140° (60° Cent.), and was then left for half an hour in cold water, but there was no inflection. It was now placed in the strong solution, and after 2 hrs. 30 m. the inner submarginal tentacles were well inflected, with their glands blackened, and some imperfect aggregation in the cells of the pedicels. Three or four of the glands were spotted with the white porcelain-like structure, like that produced by boiling water. I have seen this result in no other instance after an immersion of only a few minutes in water at so low a temperature as 140°, and in only one leaf out of four, after a similar immersion at a temperature of 145° Fahr. On the other hand, with two leaves, one placed in water at 145° (62°.7 Cent.), and the other in water at 140° (60° Cent.), both being left therein until the water cooled, the glands of both became white and porcelain-like. So that the duration of the immersion is an important element in the result.

Experiment 9.—A leaf was placed in water at 140° (60° Cent.), which was raised to 150° (65°.5 Cent.) ; there was no inflection; on the contrary, the outer tentacles were somewhat bowed backwards. The glands became like porcelain, but some of them were a little mottled with purple. The bases of the glands were often more affected than their summits. This leaf having been left in the strong solution did not undergo any inflection or aggregation.

Experiment 10.—A leaf was plunged in water at 150° to 150½° (65°.5 Cent.); it became somewhat flaccid, with the outer tentacles slightly reflexed, and the inner ones a little bent inwards, but only towards their tips; and this latter fact shows that the movement was not one of true inflection, as the basal part alone normally bends. The tentacles were as usual rendered of a very bright red, with the glands almost white like porcelain, yet tinged with pink. The leaf having been placed in the strong solution, the cell-contents of the tentacles became of a muddy brown, with no trace of aggregation.

Experiment 11.—A leaf was immersed in water at 145° (62°.7 Cent), which was raised to 156° (68°.8 Cent.). The tentacles became bright red and somewhat reflexed, with almost all the glands like porcelain; those on the disc being still pinkish, those near the margin quite white. The leaf being placed as usual first in cold water and then in the strong solution, the cells in the tentacles became of a muddy greenish brown, with the protoplasm not aggregated. Nevertheless, four of the glands escaped being rendered like porcelain, and the pedicels of these glands were spirally curled, like a French horn, towards their upper ends; but this can by no means be considered as a case of true inflection. The protoplasm within