Byblis.

Byblis gigantea (Western Australia).—­A dried specimen, about 18 inches in height, with a strong stem, was sent me from Kew.  The leaves are some inches in length, linear, slightly flattened, with a small projecting rib on the lower surface.  They are covered on all sides by glands of two kinds [page 344] —­sessile ones arranged in rows, and others supported on moderately long pedicels.  Towards the narrow summits of the leaves the pedicels are longer than elsewhere, and here equal the diameter of the leaf.  The glands are purplish, much flattened, and formed of a single layer of radiating cells, which in the larger glands are from forty to fifty in number.  The pedicels consist of single elongated cells, with colourless, extremely delicate walls, marked with the finest intersecting spiral lines.  Whether these lines are the result of contraction from the drying of the walls, I do not know, but the whole pedicel was often spirally rolled up.  These glandular hairs are far more simple in structure than the so-called tentacles of the preceding genera, and they do not differ essentially from those borne by innumerable other plants.  The flower-peduncles bear similar glands.  The most singular character about the leaves is that the apex is enlarged into a little knob, covered with glands, and about a third broader than the adjoining part of the attenuated leaf.  In two places dead flies adhered to the glands.  As no instance is known of unicellular structures having any power of movement,* Byblis, no doubt, catches insects solely by the aid of its viscid secretion.  These probably sink down besmeared with the secretion and rest on the small sessile glands, which, if we may judge by the analogy of Drosophyllum, then pour forth their secretion and afterwards absorb the digested matter.

Supplementary Observations on the Power of Absorption by the Glandular Hairs of other Plants.—­A few observations on this subject may be here conveniently introduced.  As the glands of many, probably of all,

* Sachs, ‘Trait de Bot.,’ 3rd edit. 1874, p. 1026. [page 345]

the species of Droseraceae absorb fluids or at least allow them readily to enter,* it seemed desirable to ascertain how far the glands of other plants which are not specially adapted for capturing insects, had the same power.  Plants were chosen for trial at hazard, with the exception of two species of saxifrage, which were selected from belonging to a family allied to the Droseraceae.  Most of the experiments were made by immersing the glands either in an infusion of raw meat or more commonly in a solution of carbonate of ammonia, as this latter substance acts so powerfully and rapidly on protoplasm.  It seemed also particularly desirable to ascertain whether ammonia was absorbed, as a small amount is contained in rain-water.  With the Droseraceae the secretion of a viscid fluid by the glands does not prevent their absorbing; so that the glands of other plants might excrete superfluous