Insectivorous Plants eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 527 pages of information about Insectivorous Plants.

Insectivorous Plants eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 527 pages of information about Insectivorous Plants.

Several leaves were left for 4 hrs. 30 m. in a solution of one part of white sugar to 146 of water, and no aggregation ensued; on being placed in a solution of this same strength of carbonate of ammonia, they were acted on in 5 m.; as was likewise a leaf which had been left for 1 hr. 45 m. in a moderately thick solution of gum arabic.  Several other leaves were immersed for some hours in denser solutions of sugar, gum, and starch, and they had the contents of their cells greatly aggregated.  This [page 52] effect may be attributed to exosmose; for the leaves in the syrup became quite flaccid, and those in the gum and starch somewhat flaccid, with their tentacles twisted about in the most irregular manner, the longer ones like corkscrews.  We shall hereafter see that solutions of these substances, when placed on the discs of leaves, do not incite inflection.  Particles of soft sugar were added to the secretion round several glands and were soon dissolved, causing a great increase of the secretion, no doubt by exosmose; and after 24 hrs. the cells showed a certain amount of aggregation, though the tentacles were not inflected.  Glycerine causes in a few minutes well-pronounced aggregation, commencing as usual within the glands and then travelling down the tentacles; and this I presume may be attributed to the strong attraction of this substance for water.  Immersion for several hours in water causes some degree of aggregation.  Twenty leaves were first carefully examined, and re-examined after having been left immersed in distilled water for various periods, with the following results.  It is rare to find even a trace of aggregation until 4 or 5 and generally not until several more hours have elapsed.  When however a leaf becomes quickly inflected in water, as sometimes happens, especially during very warm weather, aggregation may occur in little over 1 hr.  In all cases leaves left in water for more than 24 hrs. have their glands blackened, which shows that their contents are aggregated; and in the specimens which were carefully examined, there was fairly well-marked aggregation in the upper cells of the pedicels.  These trials were made with cut off-leaves, and it occurred to me that this circumstance might influence the result, as the footstalks would not perhaps absorb water quickly enough to supply the glands as they continued to secrete.  But this view was proved erroneous, for a plant with uninjured roots, bearing four leaves, was submerged in distilled water for 47 hrs., and the glands were blackened, though the tentacles were very little inflected.  In one of these leaves there was only a slight degree of aggregation in the tentacles; in the second rather more, the purple contents of the cells being a little separated from the walls; in the third and fourth, which were pale leaves, the aggregation in the upper parts of the pedicels was well marked.  In these leaves the little masses of protoplasm, many of which were oval, slowly changed their forms and positions; so that a submergence for 47 hrs. had not killed the protoplasm.  In a previous trial with a submerged plant, the tentacles were not in the least inflected. [page 53]

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Insectivorous Plants from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.