Insectivorous Plants Part 17

Vapour of Sulphuric Ether.--A plant was exposed for 30 m. to thirty minims of this ether in a vessel holding 19 oz.; and bits of raw meat were afterwards placed on many glands which had become pale-coloured; but none of the tentacles moved. After 6 hrs. 30 m. the leaves appeared sickly, and the discal glands were almost dry. By the next morning many of the tentacles were dead, as were all those on which meat had been placed; showing that matter had been absorbed from the meat which had increased the evil effects of the vapour. After four days the plant itself died. Another plant was exposed in the same vessel for 15 m. to forty minims. One young, small, and tender leaf had all its tentacles inflected, and seemed much injured. Bits of raw meat were placed on several glands on two other and older leaves. These glands became dry after 6 hrs.; and seemed injured; the tentacles never moved, excepting one which was ultimately a little inflected. The glands of the other tentacles continued to secrete, and appeared uninjured, but the whole plant after three days became very sickly. [page 220]

In the two foregoing experiments the doses were evidently too large and poisonous. With weaker doses, the anaesthetic effect was variable, as in the case of chloroform. A plant was exposed for 5 m. to ten drops under a 12-oz. vessel, and bits of meat were then placed on many glands. None of the tentacles thus treated began to move in a decided manner until 40 m. had elapsed; but then some of them moved very quickly, so that two reached the centre after an additional interval of only 10 m. In 2 hrs. 12 m. from the time when the meat was given, all the tentacles reached the centre. Another plant, with two leaves, was exposed in the same vessel for 5 m. to a rather larger dose of ether, and bits of meat were placed on several glands. In this case one tentacle on each leaf began to bend in 5 m.; and after 12 m. two tentacles on one leaf, and one on the second leaf, reached the centre.

In 30 m. after the meat had been given, all the tentacles, both those with and without meat, were closely inflected; so that the ether apparently had stimulated these leaves, causing all the tentacles to bend.

Vapour of Nitric Ether.--This vapour seems more injurious than that of sulphuric ether. A plant was exposed for 5 m. in a 12-oz. vessel to eight drops in a watch-gla.s.s, and I distinctly saw a few tentacles curling inwards before the gla.s.s was removed. Immediately afterwards bits of meat were placed on three glands, but no movement ensued in the course of 18 m. The same plant was placed again under the same vessel for 16 m. with ten drops of the ether. None of the tentacles moved, and next morning those with the meat were still in the same position.

After 48 hrs. one leaf seemed healthy, but the others were much injured.

Another plant, having two good leaves, was exposed for 6 m. under a 19-oz. vessel to the vapour from ten minims of the ether, and bits of meat were then placed on the glands of many tentacles on both leaves.

After 36 m. several of them on one leaf became inflected, and after 1 hr. almost all the tentacles, those with and without meat, nearly reached the centre. On the other leaf the glands began to dry in 1 hr.

40 m., and after several hours not a single tentacle was inflected; but by the next morning, after 21 hrs., many were inflected, though they seemed much injured. In this and the previous experiment, it is doubtful, owing to the injury which the leaves had suffered, whether any anaesthetic effect had been produced.

A third plant, having two good leaves, was exposed for only 4 m. in the 19-oz. vessel to the vapour from six drops. Bits of meat were then placed on the glands of seven tentacles on the [page 221] same leaf. A single tentacle moved after 1 hr. 23 m.; after 2 hrs. 3 m. several were inflected; and after 3 hrs. 3 m. all the seven tentacles with meat were well inflected. From the slowness of these movements it is clear that this leaf had been rendered insensible for a time to the action of the meat. A second leaf was rather differently affected; bits of meat were placed on the glands of five tentacles, three of which were slightly inflected in 28 m.; after 1 hr. 21 m. one reached the centre, but the other two were still only slightly inflected; after 3 hrs. they were much more inflected; but even after 5 hrs. 16 m. all five had not reached the centre. Although some of the tentacles began to move moderately soon, they afterwards moved with extreme slowness. By next morning, after 20 hrs., most of the tentacles on both leaves were closely inflected, but not quite regularly. After 48 hrs. neither leaf appeared injured, though the tentacles were still inflected; after 72 hrs. one was almost dead, whilst the other was re-expanding and recovering.

Carbonic Acid.--A plant was placed under a 122-oz. bell-gla.s.s filled with this gas and standing over water; but I did not make sufficient allowance for the absorption of the gas by the water, so that towards the latter part of the experiment some air was drawn in. After an exposure of 2 hrs. the plant was removed, and bits of raw meat placed on the glands of three leaves. One of these leaves hung a little down, and was at first partly and soon afterwards completely covered by the water, which rose within the vessel as the gas was absorbed. On this latter leaf the tentacles, to which meat had been given, became well inflected in 2 m. 30 s., that is, at about the normal rate; so that until I remembered that the leaf had been protected from the gas, and might perhaps have absorbed oxygen from the water which was continually drawn inwards, I falsely concluded that the carbonic acid had produced no effect. On the other two leaves, the tentacles with meat behaved very differently from those on the first leaf; two of them first began to move slightly in 1 hr. 50 m., always reckoning from the time when the meat was placed on the glands--were plainly inflected in 2 hrs. 22 m.--and in 3 hrs 22 m. reached the centre. Three other tentacles did not begin to move until 2 hrs. 20 m. had elapsed, but reached the centre at about the same time with the others, viz. in 3 hrs. 22 m.

This experiment was repeated several times with nearly the same results, excepting that the interval before the tentacles began to move varied a little. I will give only one other case. [page 222] A plant was exposed in the same vessel to the gas for 45 m., and bits of meat were then placed on four glands. But the tentacles did not move for 1 hr. 40 m.; after 2 hrs. 30 m. all four were well inflected, and after 3 hrs. reached the centre.

The following singular phenomenon sometimes, but by no means always, occurred. A plant was immersed for 2 hrs., and bits of meat were then placed on several glands. In the course of 13 m. all the submarginal tentacles on one leaf became considerably inflected; those with the meat not in the least degree more than the others. On a second leaf, which was rather old, the tentacles with meat, as well as a few others, were moderately inflected. On a third leaf all the tentacles were closely inflected, though meat had not been placed on any of the glands. This movement, I presume, may be attributed to excitement from the absorption of oxygen. The last-mentioned leaf, to which no meat had been given, was fully re-expanded after 24 hrs.; whereas the two other leaves had all their tentacles closely inflected over the bits of meat which by this time had been carried to their centres. Thus these three leaves had perfectly recovered from the effects of the gas in the course of 24 hrs.

On another occasion some fine plants, after having been left for 2 hrs.

in the gas, were immediately given bits of meat in the usual manner, and on their exposure to the air most of their tentacles became in 12 m. curved into a vertical or sub-vertical position, but in an extremely irregular manner; some only on one side of the leaf and some on the other. They remained in this position for some time; the tentacles with the bits of meat not having at first moved more quickly or farther inwards than the others without meat. But after 2 hrs. 20 m. the former began to move, and steadily went on bending until they reached the centre. Next morning, after 22 hrs., all the tentacles on these leaves were closely clasped over the meat which had been carried to their centres; whilst the vertical and sub-vertical tentacles on the other leaves to which no meat had been given had fully re-expanded.

Judging, however, from the subsequent action of a weak solution of carbonate of ammonia on one of these latter leaves, it had not perfectly recovered its excitability and power of movement in 22 hrs.; but another leaf, after an additional 24 hrs., had completely recovered, judging from the manner in which it clasped a fly placed on its disc.

I will give only one other experiment. After the exposure of a plant for 2 hrs. to the gas, one of its leaves was immersed in a rather strong solution of carbonate of ammonia, together with [page 223] a fresh leaf from another plant. The latter had most of its tentacles strongly inflected within 30 m.; whereas the leaf which had been exposed to the carbonic acid remained for 24 hrs. in the solution without undergoing any inflection, with the exception of two tentacles.

This leaf had been almost completely paralysed, and was not able to recover its sensibility whilst still in the solution, which from having been made with distilled water probably contained little oxygen.]

Concluding Remarks on the Effects of the foregoing Agents.--As the glands, when excited, transmit some influence to the surrounding tentacles, causing them to bend and their glands to pour forth an increased amount of modified secretion, I was anxious to ascertain whether the leaves included any element having the nature of nerve-tissue, which, though not continuous, served as the channel of transmission. This led me to try the several alkaloids and other substances which are known to exert a powerful influence on the nervous system of animals; I was at first encouraged in my trials by finding that strychnine, digitaline, and nicotine, which all act on the nervous system, were poisonous to Drosera, and caused a certain amount of inflection. Hydrocyanic acid, again, which is so deadly a poison to animals, caused rapid movement of the tentacles. But as several innocuous acids, though much diluted, such as benzoic, acetic, &c., as well as some essential oils, are extremely poisonous to Drosera, and quickly cause strong inflection, it seems probable that strychnine, nicotine, digitaline, and hydrocyanic acid, excite inflection by acting on elements in no way a.n.a.logous to the nerve-cells of animals. If elements of this latter nature had been present in the leaves, it might have been expected that morphia, hyoscyamus, atropine, veratrine, colchicine, curare, and diluted alcohol would have produced some marked effect; whereas [page 224] these substances are not poisonous and have no power, or only a very slight one, of inducing inflection. It should, however, be observed that curare, colchicine, and veratrine are muscle-poisons--that is, act on nerves having some special relation with the muscles, and, therefore, could not be expected to act on Drosera. The poison of the cobra is most deadly to animals, by paralysing their nerve-centres,* yet is not in the least so to Drosera, though quickly causing strong inflection.

Notwithstanding the foregoing facts, which show how widely different is the effect of certain substances on the health or life of animals and of Drosera, yet there exists a certain degree of parallelism in the action of certain other substances. We have seen that this holds good in a striking manner with the salts of sodium and pota.s.sium. Again, various metallic salts and acids, namely those of silver, mercury, gold, tin, a.r.s.enic, chromium, copper, and platina, most or all of which are highly poisonous to animals, are equally so to Drosera. But it is a singular fact that the chloride of lead and two salts of barium were not poisonous to this plant. It is an equally strange fact, that, though acetic and propionic acids are highly poisonous, their ally, formic acid, is not so; and that, whilst certain vegetable acids, namely oxalic, benzoic, &c., are poisonous in a high degree, gallic, tannic, tartaric, and malic (all diluted to an equal degree) are not so. Malic acid induces inflection, whilst the three other just named vegetable acids have no such power. But a pharmacopoeia would be requisite to describe the diversified effects of various substances on Drosera.

* Dr. Fayrer, 'The Thanatophidia of India,' 1872, p. 4.

Seeing that acetic, hydrocyanic, and chromic acids, acetate of strychnine, and vapour of ether, are poisonous to Drosera, [[page 225]] it is remarkable that Dr. Ransom (' Philosoph. Transact.' 1867, p. 480), who used much stronger solutions of these substances than I did, states "that the rhythmic contractility of the yolk (of the ova of the pike) is not materially influenced by any of the poisons used, which did not act chemically, with the exception of chloroform and carbonic acid." I find it stated by several writers that curare has no influence on sarcode or protoplasm, and we have seen that, though curare excites some degree of inflection, it causes very little aggregation of the protoplasm.) [page 225]

Of the alkaloids and their salts which were tried, several had not the least power of inducing inflection; others, which were certainly absorbed, as shown by the changed colour of the glands, had but a very moderate power of this kind; others, again, such as the acetate of quinine and digitaline, caused strong inflection.

The several substances mentioned in this chapter affect the colour of the glands very differently. These often become dark at first, and then very pale or white, as was conspicuously the case with glands subjected to the poison of the cobra and citrate of strychnine. In other cases they are from the first rendered white, as with leaves placed in hot water and several acids; and this, I presume, is the result of the coagulation of the alb.u.men. On the same leaf some glands become white and others dark-coloured, as occurred with leaves in a solution of the sulphate of quinine, and in the vapour of alcohol. Prolonged immersion in nicotine, curare, and even water, blackens the glands; and this, I believe, is due to the aggregation of the protoplasm within their cells. Yet curare caused very little aggregation in the cells of the tentacles, whereas nicotine and sulphate of quinine induced strongly marked aggregation down their bases. The aggregated ma.s.ses in leaves which had been immersed for 3 hrs. 15 m. in a saturated solution of sulphate of quinine exhibited incessant [page 226] changes of form, but after 24 hrs. were motionless; the leaf being flaccid and apparently dead. On the other hand, with leaves subjected for 48 hrs. to a strong solution of the poison of the cobra, the protoplasmic ma.s.ses were unusually active, whilst with the higher animals the vibratile cilia and white corpuscles of the blood seem to be quickly paralysed by this substance.

With the salts of alkalies and earths, the nature of the base, and not that of the acid, determines their physiological action on Drosera, as is likewise the case with animals; but this rule hardly applies to the salts of quinine and strychnine, for the acetate of quinine causes much more inflection than the sulphate, and both are poisonous, whereas the nitrate of quinine is not poisonous, and induces inflection at a much slower rate than the acetate. The action of the citrate of strychnine is also somewhat different from that of the sulphate.

Leaves which have been immersed for 24 hrs. in water, and for only 20 m. in diluted alcohol, or in a weak solution of sugar, are afterwards acted on very slowly, or not at all, by the phosphate of ammonia, though they are quickly acted on by the carbonate. Immersion for 20 m.

in a solution of gum arabic has no such inhibitory power. The solutions of certain salts and acids affect the leaves, with respect to the subsequent action of the phosphate, exactly like water, whilst others allow the phosphate afterwards to act quickly and energetically. In this latter case, the interstices of the cell-walls may have been blocked up by the molecules of the salts first given in solution, so that water could not afterwards enter, though the molecules of the phosphate could do so, and those of the carbonate still more easily.

[page 227]

The action of camphor dissolved in water is remarkable, for it not only soon induces inflection, but apparently renders the glands extremely sensitive to mechanical irritation; for if they are brushed with a soft brush, after being immersed in the solution for a short time, the tentacles begin to bend in about 2 m. It may, however, be that the brushing, though not a sufficient stimulus by itself, tends to excite movement merely by reinforcing the direct action of the camphor. The vapour of camphor, on the other hand, serves as a narcotic.

Some essential oils, both in solution and in vapour, cause rapid inflection, others have no such power; those which I tried were all poisonous.

Diluted alcohol (one part to seven of water) is not poisonous, does not induce inflection, nor increase the sensitiveness of the glands to mechanical irritation. The vapour acts as a narcotic or anaesthetic, and long exposure to it kills the leaves.

The vapours of chloroform, sulphuric and nitric ether, act in a singularly variable manner on different leaves, and on the several tentacles of the same leaf. This, I suppose, is owing to differences in the age or const.i.tution of the leaves, and to whether certain tentacles have lately been in action. That these vapours are absorbed by the glands is shown by their changed colour; but as other plants not furnished with glands are affected by these vapours, it is probable that they are likewise absorbed by the stomata of Drosera. They sometimes excite extraordinarily rapid inflection, but this is not an invariable result. If allowed to act for even a moderately long time, they kill the leaves; whilst a small dose acting for only a short time serves as a narcotic or anaesthetic. In this case the tentacles, whether or not they have [page 228] become inflected, are not excited to further movement by bits of meat placed on the glands, until some considerable time has elapsed. It is generally believed that with animals and plants these vapours act by arresting oxidation.

Exposure to carbonic acid for 2 hrs., and in one case for only 45 m., likewise rendered the glands insensible for a time to the powerful stimulus of raw meat. The leaves, however, recovered their full powers, and did not seem in the least injured, on being left in the air for 24 or 48 hrs. We have seen in the third chapter that the process of aggregation in leaves subjected for two hours to this gas and then immersed in a solution of the carbonate of ammonia is much r.e.t.a.r.ded, so that a considerable time elapses before the protoplasm in the lower cells of the tentacles becomes aggregated. In some cases, soon after the leaves were removed from the gas and brought into the air, the tentacles moved spontaneously; this being due, I presume, to the excitement from the access of oxygen. These inflected tentacles, however, could not be excited for some time afterwards to any further movement by their glands being stimulated. With other irritable plants it is known* that the exclusion of oxygen prevents their moving, and arrests the movements of the protoplasm within their cells, but this arrest is a different phenomenon from the r.e.t.a.r.dation of the process of aggregation just alluded to. Whether this latter fact ought to be attributed to the direct action of the carbonic acid, or to the exclusion of oxygen, I know not.

* Sachs, 'Trait de Bot.' 1874, pp. 846, 1037. [page 229]

CHAPTER X.

ON THE SENSITIVENESS OF THE LEAVES, AND ON THE LINES OF TRANSMISSION OF THE MOTOR IMPULSE.

Glands and summits of the tentacles alone sensitive--Transmission of the motor impulse down the pedicels of the tentacles, and across the blade of the leaf--Aggregation of the protoplasm, a reflex action--First discharge of the motor impulse sudden--Direction of the movements of the tentacles--Motor impulse transmitted through the cellular tissue-- Mechanism of the movements--Nature of the motor impulse--Re-expansion of the tentacles.

WE have seen in the previous chapters that many widely different stimulants, mechanical and chemical, excite the movement of the tentacles, as well as of the blade of the leaf; and we must now consider, firstly, what are the points which are irritable or sensitive, and secondly how the motor impulse is transmitted from one point to another. The glands are almost exclusively the seat of irritability, yet this irritability must extend for a very short distance below them; for when they were cut off with a sharp pair of scissors without being themselves touched, the tentacles often became inflected. These headless tentacles frequently re-expanded; and when afterwards drops of the two most powerful known stimulants were placed on the cut-off ends, no effect was produced. Nevertheless these headless tentacles are capable of subsequent inflection if excited by an impulse sent from the disc. I succeeded on several occasions in crushing glands between fine pincers, but this did not excite any movement; nor did raw meat and salts of ammonia, when placed on such crushed glands. [page 230] It is probable that they were killed so instantly that they were not able to transmit any motor impulse; for in six observed cases (in two of which however the gland was quite pinched off) the protoplasm within the cells of the tentacles did not become aggregated; whereas in some adjoining tentacles, which were inflected from having been roughly touched by the pincers, it was well aggregated. In like manner the protoplasm does not become aggregated when a leaf is instantly killed by being dipped into boiling water. On the other hand, in several cases in which tentacles became inflected after their glands had been cut off with sharp scissors, a distinct though moderate degree of aggregation supervened.

The pedicels of the tentacles were roughly and repeatedly rubbed; raw meat or other exciting substances were placed on them, both on the upper surface near the base and elsewhere, but no distinct movement ensued. Some bits of meat, after being left for a considerable time on the pedicels, were pushed upwards, so as just to touch the glands, and in a minute the tentacles began to bend. I believe that the blade of the leaf is not sensitive to any stimulant. I drove the point of a lancet through the blades of several leaves, and a needle three or four times through nineteen leaves: in the former case no movement ensued; but about a dozen of the leaves which were repeatedly p.r.i.c.ked had a few tentacles irregularly inflected. As, however, their backs had to be supported during the operation, some of the outer glands, as well as those on the disc, may have been touched; and this perhaps sufficed to cause the slight degree of movement observed. Nitschke*says

* 'Bot. Zeitung,' 1860, p. 234. [page 231]

that cutting and p.r.i.c.king the leaf does not excite movement. The petiole of the leaf is quite insensible.

The backs of the leaves bear numerous minute papillae, which do not secrete, but have the power of absorption. These papillae are, I believe, rudiments of formerly existing tentacles together with their glands. Many experiments were made to ascertain whether the backs of the leaves could be irritated in any way, thirty-seven leaves being thus tried. Some were rubbed for a long time with a blunt needle, and drops of milk and other exciting fluids, raw meat, crushed flies, and various substances, placed on others. These substances were apt soon to become dry, showing that no secretion had been excited. Hence I moistened them with saliva, solutions of ammonia, weak hydrochloric acid, and frequently with the secretion from the glands of other leaves. I also kept some leaves, on the backs of which exciting objects had been placed, under a damp bell-gla.s.s; but with all my care I never saw any true movement. I was led to make so many trials because, contrary to my previous experience, Nitschke states* that, after affixing objects to the backs of leaves by the aid of the viscid secretion, he repeatedly saw the tentacles (and in one instance the blade) become reflexed. This movement, if a true one, would be most anomalous; for it implies that the tentacles receive a motor impulse from an unnatural source, and have the power of bending in a direction exactly the reverse of that which is habitual to them; this power not being of the least use to the plant, as insects cannot adhere to the smooth backs of the leaves.

I have said that no effect was produced in the above

* 'Bot. Zeitung.' 1860, p. 437. [page 232]

cases; but this is not strictly true, for in three instances a little syrup was added to the bits of raw meat on the backs of leaves, in order to keep them damp for a time; and after 36 hrs. there was a trace of reflexion in the tentacles of one leaf, and certainly in the blade of another. After twelve additional hours, the glands began to dry, and all three leaves seemed much injured. Four leaves were then placed under a bell-gla.s.s, with their footstalks in water, with drops of syrup on their backs, but without any meat. Two of these leaves, after a day, had a few tentacles reflexed. The drops had now increased considerably in size, from having imbibed moisture, so as to trickle down the backs of the tentacles and footstalks. On the second day, one leaf had its blade much reflexed; on the third day the tentacles of two were much reflexed, as well as the blades of all four to a greater or less degree. The upper side of one leaf, instead of being, as at first, slightly concave, now presented a strong convexity upwards. Even on the fifth day the leaves did not appear dead. Now, as sugar does not in the least excite Drosera, we may safely attribute the reflexion of the blades and tentacles of the above leaves to exosmose from the cells which were in contact with the syrup, and their consequent contraction.

When drops of syrup are placed on the leaves of plants with their roots still in damp earth, no inflection ensues, for the roots, no doubt, pump up water as quickly as it is lost by exosmose. But if cut-off leaves are immersed in syrup, or in any dense fluid, the tentacles are greatly, though irregularly, inflected, some of them a.s.suming the shape of corkscrews; and the leaves soon become flaccid. If they are now immersed in a fluid of low specific gravity, the tentacles re-expand.

From these [page 233] facts we may conclude that drops of syrup placed on the backs of leaves do not act by exciting a motor impulse which is transmitted to the tentacles; but that they cause reflexion by inducing exosmose. Dr. Nitschke used the secretion for sticking insects to the backs of the leaves; and I suppose that he used a large quant.i.ty, which from being dense probably caused exosmose. Perhaps he experimented on cut-off leaves, or on plants with their roots not supplied with enough water.

As far, therefore, as our present knowledge serves, we may conclude that the glands, together with the immediately underlying cells of the tentacles, are the exclusive seats of that irritability or sensitiveness with which the leaves are endowed. The degree to which a gland is excited can be measured only by the number of the surrounding tentacles which are inflected, and by the amount and rate of their movement. Equally vigorous leaves, exposed to the same temperature (and this is an important condition), are excited in different degrees under the following circ.u.mstances. A minute quant.i.ty of a weak solution produces no effect; add more, or give a rather stronger solution, and the tentacles bend. Touch a gland once or twice, and no movement follows; touch it three or four times, and the tentacle becomes inflected. But the nature of the substance which is given is a very important element: if equal-sized particles of gla.s.s (which acts only mechanically), of gelatine, and raw meat, are placed on the discs of several leaves, the meat causes far more rapid, energetic, and widely extended movement than the two former substances. The number of glands which are excited also makes a great difference in the result: place a bit of meat on one or two of the discal [page 234] glands, and only a few of the immediately surrounding short tentacles are inflected; place it on several glands, and many more are acted on; place it on thirty or forty, and all the tentacles, including the extreme marginal ones, become closely inflected. We thus see that the impulses proceeding from a number of glands strengthen one another, spread farther, and act on a larger number of tentacles, than the impulse from any single gland.

Transmission of the Motor Impulse.--In every case the impulse from a gland has to travel for at least a short distance to the basal part of the tentacle, the upper part and the gland itself being merely carried by the inflection of the lower part. The impulse is thus always transmitted down nearly the whole length of the pedicel. When the central glands are stimulated, and the extreme marginal tentacles become inflected, the impulse is transmitted across half the diameter of the disc; and when the glands on one side of the disc are stimulated, the impulse is transmitted across nearly the whole width of the disc. A gland transmits its motor impulse far more easily and quickly down its own tentacle to the bending place than across the disc to neighbouring tentacles. Thus a minute dose of a very weak solution of ammonia, if given to one of the glands of the exterior tentacles, causes it to bend and reach the centre; whereas a large drop of the same solution, given to a score of glands on the disc, will not cause through their combined influence the least inflection of the exterior tentacles. Again, when a bit of meat is placed on the gland of an exterior tentacle, I have seen movement in ten seconds, and repeatedly within a minute; but a much larger bit placed on several glands on the disc does not cause [page 235] the exterior tentacles to bend until half an hour or even several hours have elapsed.

The motor impulse spreads gradually on all sides from one or more excited glands, so that the tentacles which stand nearest are always first affected. Hence, when the glands in the centre of the disc are excited, the extreme marginal tentacles are the last inflected. But the glands on different parts of the leaf transmit their motor power in a somewhat different manner. If a bit of meat be placed on the long-headed gland of a marginal tentacle, it quickly transmits an impulse to its own bending portion; but never, as far as I have observed, to the adjoining tentacles; for these are not affected until the meat has been carried to the central glands, which then radiate forth their conjoint impulse on all sides. On four occasions leaves were prepared by removing some days previously all the glands from the centre, so that these could not be excited by the bits of meat brought to them by the inflection of the marginal tentacles; and now these marginal tentacles re-expanded after a time without any other tentacle being affected. Other leaves were similarly prepared, and bits of meat were placed on the glands of two tentacles in the third row from the outside, and on the glands of two tentacles in the fifth row. In these four cases the impulse was sent in the first place laterally, that is, in the same concentric row of tentacles, and then towards the centre; but not centrifugally, or towards the exterior tentacles. In one of these cases only a single tentacle on each side of the one with meat was affected. In the three other cases, from half a dozen to a dozen tentacles, both laterally and towards the centre, were well inflected or sub-inflected. Lastly, in [page 236] ten other experiments, minute bits of meat were placed on a single gland or on two glands in the centre of the disc. In order that no other glands should touch the meat, through the inflection of the closely adjoining short tentacles, about half a dozen glands had been previously removed round the selected ones. On eight of these leaves from sixteen to twenty-five of the short surrounding tentacles were inflected in the course of one or two days; so that the motor impulse radiating from one or two of the discal glands is able to produce this much effect. The tentacles which had been removed are included in the above numbers; for, from standing so close, they would certainly have been affected. On the two remaining leaves, almost all the short tentacles on the disc were inflected. With a more powerful stimulus than meat, namely a little phosphate of lime moistened with saliva, I have seen the inflection spread still farther from a single gland thus treated; but even in this case the three or four outer rows of tentacles were not affected. From these experiments it appears that the impulse from a single gland on the disc acts on a greater number of tentacles than that from a gland of one of the exterior elongated tentacles; and this probably follows, at least in part, from the impulse having to travel a very short distance down the pedicels of the central tentacles, so that it is able to spread to a considerable distance all round.

Whilst examining these leaves, I was struck with the fact that in six, perhaps seven, of them the tentacles were much more inflected at the distal and proximal ends of the leaf (i.e. towards the apex and base) than on either side; and yet the tentacles on the sides stood as near to the gland where the bit of meat lay as did those at the two ends. It thus appeared as [page 237] if the motor impulse was transmitted from the centre across the disc more readily in a longitudinal than in a transverse direction; and as this appeared a new and interesting fact in the physiology of plants, thirty-five fresh experiments were made to test its truth. Minute bits of meat were placed on a single gland or on a few glands, on the right or left side of the discs of eighteen leaves; other bits of the same size being placed on the distal or proximal ends of seventeen other leaves. Now if the motor impulse were transmitted with equal force or at an equal rate through the blade in all directions, a bit of meat placed at one side or at one end of the disc ought to affect equally all the tentacles situated at an equal distance from it; but this certainly is not the case. Before giving the general results, it may be well to describe three or four rather unusual cases.

[(1) A minute fragment of a fly was placed on one side of the disc, and after 32 m. seven of the outer tentacles near the fragment were inflected; after 10 hrs. several more became so, and after 23 hrs. a still greater number; and now the blade of the leaf on this side was bent inwards so as to stand up at right angles to the other side.

Neither the blade of the leaf nor a single tentacle on the opposite side was affected; the line of separation between the two halves extending from the footstalk to the apex. The leaf remained in this state for three days, and on the fourth day began to re-expand; not a single tentacle having been inflected on the opposite side.

(2) I will here give a case not included in the above thirty-five experiments. A small fly was found adhering by its feet to the left side of the disc. The tentacles on this side soon closed in and killed the fly; and owing probably to its struggle whilst alive, the leaf was so much excited that in about 24 hrs. all the tentacles on the opposite side became inflected; but as they found no prey, for their glands did not reach the fly, they re-expanded in the course of 15 hrs.; the tentacles on the left side remaining clasped for several days.

(3) A bit of meat, rather larger than those commonly used, [page 238]

was placed in a medial line at the basal end of the disc, near the footstalk; after 2 hrs. 30 m. some neighbouring tentacles were inflected; after 6 hrs. the tentacles on both sides of the footstalk, and some way up both sides, were moderately inflected; after 8 hrs. the tentacles at the further or distal end were more inflected than those on either side; after 23 hrs. the meat was well clasped by all the tentacles, excepting by the exterior ones on the two sides.