As we have seen that nitrogenous fluids act very differently on the leaves of _Drosera_ from non-nitrogenous fluids, and as the leaves remain clasped for a much longer time over various organic bodies than over inorganic bodies, such as bits of glass, cinder, wood, etc., it becomes an interesting inquiry whether they can only absorb matter already in solution, or render it soluble; that is, have the power of digestion. We shall immediately see that they certainly have this power, and that they act on albuminous compounds in exactly the same manner as does the gastric juice of mammals; the digested matter being afterward absorbed. This fact, which will be clearly proved, is a wonderful one in the physiology of plants. * * * * * [Page 86.] It may be well to premise, for the sake of any reader who knows nothing about the digestion of albuminous compounds by animals, that this is effected by means of a ferment, pepsin, together with weak hydrochloric acid, though almost any acid will serve. Yet neither pepsin nor an acid by itself has any such power. We have seen that when the glands of the disk are excited by the contact of any object, especially of one containing nitrogenous matter, the outer tentacles and often the blade become inflected; the leaf being thus converted into a temporary cup or stomach. At the same time the discal glands secrete more copiously, and the secretion becomes acid. Moreover, they transmit some influence to the glands of the exterior tentacles, causing them to pour forth a more copious secretion, which also becomes acid or more acid than it was before.