Now for a summary of the state of the 173 leaves after an immersion of 3 or 4 hrs. in pure water.  One leaf had almost all its tentacles inflected; three leaves had most of them sub-inflected; and thirteen had on an average 36.5 tentacles inflected.  Thus seventeen leaves out of the 173 were acted on in a marked manner.  Eighteen leaves had from seven to nineteen tentacles inflected, the average being 9.3 tentacles for each leaf.  Forty-four leaves had from one to six tentacles inflected, generally the long-headed ones.  So that altogether of the 173 leaves carefully observed, seventy-nine were affected by the water in some degree, though commonly to a very slight degree; and ninety-four were not affected in the least degree.  This [page 140] amount of inflection is utterly insignificant, as we shall hereafter see, compared with that caused by very weak solutions of several salts of ammonia.

Plants which have lived for some time in a rather high temperature are far more sensitive to the action of water than those grown out of doors, or recently brought into a warm greenhouse.  Thus in the above seventeen cases, in which the immersed leaves had a considerable number of tentacles inflected, the plants had been kept during the winter in a very warm greenhouse; and they bore in the early spring remarkably fine leaves, of a light red colour.  Had I then known that the sensitiveness of plants was thus increased, perhaps I should not have used the leaves for my experiments with the very weak solutions of phosphate of ammonia; but my experiments are not thus vitiated, as I invariably used leaves from the same plants for simultaneous immersion in water.  It often happened that some leaves on the same plant, and some tentacles on the same leaf, were more sensitive than others; but why this should be so, I do not know.

Fig. 9. (Drosera rotundifolia.) Leaf (enlarged) with all the tentacles closely inflected, from immersion in a solution of phosphate of ammonia (one part to 87,500 of water.)

Besides the differences just indicated between the leaves immersed in water and in weak solutions of ammonia, the tentacles of the latter are in most cases much more closely inflected.  The appearance of a leaf after immersion in a few drops of a solution of 1 grain of phosphate of ammonia to 200 oz. of water (i.e. one part to 87,500) is here reproduced:  such energetic inflection is never caused by water alone.  With leaves in the weak solutions, the blade or lamina often becomes inflected; and this is so rare a circumstance with leaves in water that I have seen only two instances; and in both of these the inflection was very feeble.  Again, with leaves in the weak solutions, the inflection of the tentacles and blade often goes on steadily, though slowly, increasing during many hours; and [page 141] this again is so rare a circumstance with leaves in water that I have seen only three instances of any such increase after the first 8 to 12 hrs.; and in these three instances the two outer rows of tentacles were not at all affected.  Hence there is sometimes a much greater difference between the leaves in water and in the weak solutions, after from 8 hrs. to 24 hrs., than there was within the first 3 hrs.; though as a general rule it is best to trust to the difference observed within the shorter time.