no doubt, contain urea.  They would be left either on the broad outer surfaces of the lobes where the quadrifids are situated, or within the closed concavity.  In the latter case, water charged with excrementitious and decaying matter would be slowly forced outwards, and would bathe the quadrifids, if I am right in believing that the concave lobes contract after a time like those of Dionaea.  Foul water would also be apt to ooze out at all times, especially when bubbles of air were generated within the concavity.

A leaf was cut open and examined, and the outer [page 327] cells of the glands were found to contain only limpid fluid.  Some of the quadrifids included a few spherical granules, but several were transparent and empty, and their positions were marked.  This leaf was now immersed in a little solution of one part of urea to 146 of water, or three grains to the ounce.  After 3 hrs. 40 m. there was no change either in the glands or quadrifids; nor was there any certain change in the glands after 24 hrs.; so that, as far as one trial goes, urea does not act on them in the same manner as an infusion of raw meat.  It was different with the quadrifids; for the lining of protoplasm, instead of presenting a uniform texture, was now slightly shrunk, and exhibited in many places minute, thickened, irregular, yellowish specks and ridges, exactly like those which appear within the quadrifids of Utricularia when treated with this same solution.  Moreover, several of the quadrifids, which were before empty, now contained moderately sized or very small, more or less aggregated, globules of yellowish matter, as likewise occurs under the same circumstances with Utricularia.  Some of the points on the infolded margins of the lobes were similarly affected; for their lining of protoplasm was a little shrunk and included yellowish specks; and those which were before empty now contained small spheres and irregular masses of hyaline matter, more or less aggregated; so that both the points on the margins and the quadrifids had absorbed matter from the solution in the course of 24 hrs.; but to this subject I shall recur.  In another rather old leaf, to which nothing had been given, but which had been kept in foul water, some of the quadrifids contained aggregated translucent globules.  These were not acted on by a solution of one part of carbonate of ammonia to 218 of water; and this negative result [page 328] agrees with what I have observed under similar circumstances with Utricularia.

Aldrovanda vesiculosa, var. australis.—­Dried leaves of this plant from Queensland in Australia were sent me by Prof.  Oliver from the herbarium at Kew.  Whether it ought to be considered as a distinct species or a variety, cannot be told until the flowers are examined by a botanist.  The projections at the upper end of the petiole (from four to six in number) are considerably longer relatively to the blade, and much more attenuated than those of the European