from the time when the drops were placed on the leaves, all four had
almost re-expanded. They were then given little bits of meat, and these
acted more powerfully than the solution. One part of isinglass was next
dissolved in 437 of water; the fluid thus formed was so thin that it
could not be distinguished from pure water. The usual-sized drops were
placed on seven leaves, each of which thus received 1/960 of a grain
(.0295 mg.). Three of them were observed for 41 hrs., but were in no
way affected; the fourth and fifth had two or three of their exterior
tentacles inflected after 18 hrs.; the sixth had a few more; and the
seventh had in addition the edge of the leaf just perceptibly curved
inwards. The tentacles of the four latter leaves began to re-expand
after an additional interval of only 8 hrs. Hence the 1/960 of a grain
of isinglass is sufficient to affect very slightly the more sensitive
or active leaves. On one of the leaves, which had not been acted on by
the weak solution, and on another, which had only two of its tentacles
inflected, drops of the solution as thick as milk were placed; and next
morning, after an interval of 16 hrs., both were found with all their
tentacles strongly inflected.]
Altogether I experimented on sixty-four leaves with the above
nitrogenous fluids, the five leaves tried only with the extremely weak
solution of isinglass not being included, nor the numerous trials
subsequently made, of which no exact account was kept. Of these
sixty-four leaves, sixty-three had their tentacles and often their
blades well inflected. The one which failed was probably too old and
torpid. But to obtain so large a proportion of successful cases, care
must be taken to select young and active leaves. Leaves in this
condition were chosen with equal care for the sixty-one trials with
non-nitrogenous fluids (water not included); and we have seen that not
one of these was in the least affected. We may therefore safely
conclude that in the sixty-four experiments with nitrogenous fluids the
inflection of the exterior tentacles was due to the absorption of [page
82] nitrogenous matter by the glands of the tentacles on the disc.