parts; but this view was soon proved erroneous.  It was found by many trials that tentacles with their glands closely cut off by sharp scissors often become inflected and again re-expand, still appearing healthy.  One which was observed continued healthy for ten days after the operation.  I therefore cut the glands off twenty-five tentacles, at different times and on different leaves, and seventeen of these soon became inflected, and afterwards re-expanded.  The re-expansion commenced in about [page 242] 8 hrs. or 9 hrs., and was completed in from 22 hrs. to 30 hrs. from the time of inflection.  After an interval of a day or two, raw meat with saliva was placed on the discs of these seventeen leaves, and when observed next day, seven of the headless tentacles were inflected over the meat as closely as the uninjured ones on the same leaves; and an eighth headless tentacle became inflected after three additional days.  The meat was removed from one of these leaves, and the surface washed with a little stream of water, and after three days the headless tentacle re-expanded for the second time.  These tentacles without glands were, however, in a different state from those provided with glands and which had absorbed matter from the meat, for the protoplasm within the cells of the former had undergone far less aggregation.  From these experiments with headless tentacles it is certain that the glands do not, as far as the motor impulse is concerned, act in a reflex manner like the nerve-ganglia of animals.

But there is another action, namely that of aggregation, which in certain cases may be called reflex, and it is the only known instance in the vegetable kingdom.  We should bear in mind that the process does not depend on the previous bending of the tentacles, as we clearly see when leaves are immersed in certain strong solutions.  Nor does it depend on increased secretion from the glands, and this is shown by several facts, more especially by the papillae, which do not secrete, yet undergoing aggregation, if given carbonate of ammonia or an infusion of raw meat.  When a gland is directly stimulated in any way, as by the pressure of a minute particle of glass, the protoplasm within the cells of the gland first becomes aggregated, then that in the cells immediately beneath the gland, and so lower and lower down the tentacles to their bases;—­ [page 243] that is, if the stimulus has been sufficient and not injurious.  Now, when the glands of the disc are excited, the exterior tentacles are affected in exactly the same manner:  the aggregation always commences in their glands, though these have not been directly excited, but have only received some influence from the disc, as shown by their increased acid secretion.  The protoplasm within the cells immediately beneath the glands are next affected, and so downwards from cell to cell to the bases of the tentacles.  This process apparently deserves to be called a reflex action, in the same manner as when a sensory nerve is irritated,