Cubes of about one twentieth of an inch (1·27 millimetre) of moderately roasted meat were placed on five leaves, which became in twelve hours closely inflected. After forty-eight hours I gently opened one leaf, and the meat now consisted of a minute central sphere, partially digested, and surrounded by a thick envelope of transparent viscid fluid. The whole, without being much disturbed, was removed and placed under the microscope. In the central part the transverse striæ on the muscular fibers were quite distinct; and it was interesting to observe how gradually they disappeared, when the same fiber was traced into the surrounding fluid. They disappeared by the striæ being replaced by transverse lines formed of excessively minute dark points, which toward the exterior could be seen only under a very high power; and ultimately these points were lost. * * * * * [Page 134.] Finally, the experiments recorded in this chapter show us that there is a remarkable accordance in the power of digestion between the gastric juice of animals, with its pepsin and hydrochloric acid, and the secretion of _Drosera_ with its ferment and acid belonging to the acetic series. We can, therefore, hardly doubt that the ferment in both cases is closely similar. DIVERSE MEANS BY WHICH PLANTS GAIN THEIR SUBSISTENCE. [Insectivorous Plants, page 452.] Ordinary plants of the higher classes procure the requisite inorganic elements from the soil by means of their roots, and absorb carbonic acid from the atmosphere by means of their leaves and stems. But we have seen in a previous part of this work that there is a class of plants which digest and afterward absorb animal matter, namely, all the _Droseraceæ_, _Pinguicula_, and, as discovered by Dr. Hooker, _Nepenthes_, and to this class other species will almost certainly soon be added. These plants can dissolve matter out of certain vegetable substances, such as pollen, seeds, and bits of leaves. No doubt their glands likewise absorb the salts of ammonia brought to them by the rain. It has also been shown that some other plants can absorb ammonia by their glandular hairs; and these will profit by that brought to them by the rain. There is a second class of plants which, as we have just seen, can not digest, but absorb, the products of the decay of the animals which they capture, namely, _Utricularia_ and its close allies; and, from the excellent observations of Dr. Mellichamp and Dr. Canby, there can scarcely be a doubt that _Sarracenia_ and _Darlingtonia_ may be added to this class, though the fact can hardly be considered as yet fully proved. There is a third class of plants which feed, as is now generally admitted, on the products of the decay of vegetable matter, such as the bird’s-nest orchid (_Neottia_), etc. Lastly, there is the well-known fourth class of parasites (such as the mistletoe), which are nourished by the juices of living plants. Most, however, of the