Four leaves were immersed, each in thirty minims of a solution of one part to 43,750 of water (1 gr. to 100 oz.), so that each leaf got 1/1600 of a grain (.0405 mg.).  Of these, one was much inflected in 8 m., and after 2 hrs. 7 m. had all the tentacles, except thirteen, inflected.  The second leaf, after 10 m., had all except three inflected.  The third and fourth were hardly at all affected, scarcely more than the corresponding leaves in water.  Of the latter, only one was affected, this having two tentacles inflected, with those on the outer parts of the disc forming a ring in the usual manner.  In the leaf which had all its tentacles except three inflected in 10 m., each gland (assuming that the leaf bore 160 tentacles) could have absorbed only 1/251200 of a grain, or .000258 mg.

Four leaves were separately immersed as before in a solution of one part to 131,250 of water (1 gr. to 300 oz.), so that each received 1/4800 of a grain, or .0135 mg.  After 50 m. one leaf had all its tentacles except sixteen, and after 8 hrs. 20 m. all but fourteen, inflected.  The second leaf, after 40 m., had all but twenty inflected; and after 8 hrs. 10 m. began to re-expand.  The third, in 3 hrs. had about half its tentacles inflected, which began to re-expand after 8 hrs. 15 m.  The fourth leaf, after 3 hrs. 7 m., had only twenty-nine tentacles more or less inflected.  Thus three out of the four leaves were strongly acted on.  It is clear that very sensitive leaves had been accidentally selected.  The day moreover was hot.  The four corresponding leaves in water were likewise acted on rather more than is usual; for after 3 hrs. one had nine tentacles, another four, and another two, and the fourth none, inflected.  With respect to the leaf of which all the tentacles, except sixteen, were inflected after 50 m., each gland (assuming that the leaf bore 160 tentacles) could have absorbed only 1/691200 of a grain (.0000937 mg.), and this appears to be about the least quantity of the nitrate which suffices to induce the inflection of a single tentacle.

As negative results are important in confirming the foregoing positive ones, eight leaves were immersed as before, each in thirty minims of a solution of one part to 175,000 of water (1 gr. to 400 oz.), so that each received only 1/6400 of a grain (.0101 mg.).  This minute quantity produced a slight effect on only four of the eight leaves.  One had fifty-six tentacles inflected after 2 hrs. 13 m.; a second, twenty-six inflected, or sub-inflected, after [page 153] 38 m.; a third, eighteen inflected, after 1 hr.; and a fourth, ten inflected, after 35 m.  The four other leaves were not in the least affected.  Of the eight corresponding leaves in water, one had, after 2 hrs. 10 m., nine tentacles, and four others from one to four long-headed tentacles, inflected; the remaining three being unaffected.  Hence, the 1/6400 of a grain given to a sensitive leaf during warm weather perhaps produces a slight effect; but we must bear in mind that occasionally water causes as great an amount of inflection as occurred in this last experiment.]