[(1) This leaf proved rather torpid: after 4 hrs. 40 m. (in all cases
reckoning from the time when the meat was given) the tentacles at the
distal end were a little inflected, but nowhere else; they remained so
for three days, and re-expanded on the fourth day. The leaf was then
dissected, and the trunk, as well as the two sublateral branches, were
found divided.
(2) After 4 hrs. 30 m. many of the tentacles at the distal end were
well inflected. Next day the blade and all the tentacles at this end
were strongly inflected, and were separated by a distinct transverse
line from the basal half of the leaf, which was not in the least
affected. On the third day, however, some of the short tentacles on the
disc near the base were very slightly inflected. The incision was found
on dissection to extend across the leaf as in the last case.
(3) After 4 hrs. 30 m. strong inflection of the tentacles at the distal
end, which during the next two days never extended in the least to the
basal end. The incision as before.
(4) This leaf was not observed until 15 hrs. had elapsed, and then all
the tentacles, except the extreme marginal ones, were found equally
well inflected all round the leaf. On careful examination the spiral
vessels of the central trunk were certainly divided; but the incision
on one side had not passed through the fibrous tissue surrounding these
vessels, though it had passed through the tissue on the other side.*]
The appearance presented by the leaves (2) and (3) was very curious,
and might be aptly compared with that of a man with his backbone broken
and lower extremities paralysed. Excepting that the line between the
two halves was here transverse instead of longitudinal, these leaves
were in the same state as some of those in the former experiments, with
bits of meat placed on one side of the disc. The case of leaf (4)
* M. Ziegler made similar experiments by cutting the spiral vessels of
Drosera intermedia(‘Comptes rendus,’ 1874, p. 1417), but arrived at
conclusions widely different from mine. [page 250]
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