petiole a little longer. The points on the infolded margins likewise
differ; they have narrower bases, and are more pointed; long and short
points also alternate with much more regularity than in the European
form. The glands and sensitive hairs are similar in the two forms. No
quadrifid processes could be seen on several of the leaves, but I do
not doubt that they were present, though indistinguishable from their
delicacy and from having shrivelled; for they were quite distinct on
one leaf under circumstances presently to be mentioned.
Some of the closed leaves contained no prey, but in one there was a
rather large beetle, which from its flattened tibiae I suppose was an
aquatic species, but was not allied to Colymbetes. All the softer
tissues of this beetle were completely dissolved, and its chitinous
integuments were as clean as if they had been [page 329] boiled in
caustic potash; so that it must have been enclosed for a considerable
time. The glands were browner and more opaque than those on other
leaves which had caught nothing; and the quadrifid processes, from
being partly filled with brown granular matter, could be plainly
distinguished, which was not the case, as already stated, on the other
leaves. Some of the points on the infolded margins likewise contained
brownish granular matter. We thus gain additional evidence that the
glands, the quadrifid processes, and the marginal points, all have the
power of absorbing matter, though probably of a different nature.
Within another leaf disintegrated remnants of a rather small animal,
not a crustacean, which had simple, strong, opaque mandibles, and a
large unarticulated chitinous coat, were present. Lumps of black
organic matter, possibly of a vegetable nature, were enclosed in two
other leaves; but in one of these there was also a small worm much
decayed. But the nature of partially digested and decayed bodies, which
have been pressed flat, long dried, and then soaked in water, cannot be
recognised easily. All the leaves contained unicellular and other
Algae, still of a greenish colour, which had evidently lived as
intruders, in the same manner as occurs, according to Cohn, within the
leaves of this plant in Germany.
Aldrovanda vesiculosa, var. verticillata. Dr. King, Superintendent of
the Botanic Gardens, kindly sent me dried specimens collected near
Calcutta. This form was, I believe, considered by Wallich as a distinct
species, under the name of verticillata. It resembles the Australian
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