Two leaves were next immersed, each in thirty minims of a much stronger
solution, of one part to 109 of water; so that each received 1/4 of a
grain, or 16.2 mg; After 1 hr. 45 m. the sub-marginal tentacles were
strongly inflected, with the glands somewhat pale; after 3 hrs. 30 m.
both leaves had all their tentacles closely inflected and the glands
white. Hence the weaker solution, as in so many other cases, induced
more rapid inflection than the stronger one; but the glands were sooner
rendered white by the latter. After an immersion of 24 hrs. some of the
tentacles were examined, and the protoplasm, still of a fine purple
colour, was found aggregated into chains of small globular masses.
These changed their shapes with remarkable quickness. After an
immersion of 48 hrs. they were again examined, and their movements were
so plain that they could easily be seen under a weak power. The leaves
were now placed in water, and after 24 hrs. (i.e. 72 hrs. from their
first immersion) the little masses of protoplasm, which had become of a
dingy purple, were still in strong movement, changing their shapes,
coalescing, and again separating.
In 8 hrs. after these two leaves had been placed in water (i.e. in 56
hrs. after their immersion in the solution) they began to re-expand,
and by the next morning were more expanded. After an additional day
(i.e. on the fourth day after their immersion in the solution) they
were largely, but not quite fully [page 208] expanded. The tentacles
were now examined, and the aggregated masses were almost wholly
redissolved; the cells being filled with homogeneous purple fluid, with
the exception here and there of a single globular mass. We thus see how
completely the protoplasm had escaped all injury from the poison. As
the glands were soon rendered quite white, it occurred to me that their
texture might have been modified in such a manner as to prevent the
poison passing into the cells beneath, and consequently that the
protoplasm within these cells had not been at all affected. Accordingly
I placed another leaf, which had been immersed for 48 hrs. in the
poison and afterwards for 24 hrs. in water, in a little solution of one
part of carbonate of ammonia to 218 of water; in 30 m. the protoplasm
in the cells beneath the glands became darker, and in the course of 24
hrs. the tentacles were filled down to their bases with dark-coloured
spherical masses. Hence the glands had not lost their power of
absorption, as far as the carbonate of ammonia is concerned.
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