In order to test my belief in the potency of phosphate of lime, I procured some from Prof. Frankland absolutely free of animal matter and of any acid. A small quantity moistened with water was placed on the discs of two leaves. One of these was only slightly affected; the other remained closely inflected for ten days, when a few of the tentacles began to [page 110] re-expand, the rest being much injured or killed. I repeated the experiment, but moistened the phosphate with saliva to insure prompt inflection; one leaf remained inflected for six days (the little saliva used would not have acted for nearly so long a time) and then died; the other leaf tried to re-expand on the sixth day, but after nine days failed to do so, and likewise died. Although the quantity of phosphate given to the above four leaves was extremely small, much was left in every case undissolved. A larger quantity wetted with water was next placed on the discs of three leaves; and these became most strongly inflected in the course of 24 hrs. They never re-expanded; on the fourth day they looked sickly, and on the sixth were almost dead. Large drops of not very viscid fluid hung from their edges during the six days. This fluid was tested each day with litmus paper, but never coloured it; and this circumstance I do not understand, as the superphosphate of lime is acid. I suppose that some superphosphate must have been formed by the acid of the secretion acting on the phosphate, but that it was all absorbed and injured the leaves; the large drops which hung from their edges being an abnormal and dropsical secretion. Anyhow, it is manifest that the phosphate of lime is a most powerful stimulant. Even small doses are more or less poisonous, probably on the same principle that raw meat and other nutritious substances, given in excess, kill the leaves. Hence the conclusion, that the long continued inflection of the tentacles over fragments of bone, enamel, and dentine, is caused by the presence of phosphate of lime, and not of any included animal matter, is no doubt correct.
Gelatine.--I used pure gelatine in thin sheets given [page 111] me by Prof. Hoffmann. For comparison, squares of the same size as those placed on the leaves were left close by on wet moss. These soon swelled, but retained their angles for three days; after five days they formed rounded, softened masses, but even on the eighth day a trace of gelatine could still be detected. Other squares were immersed in water, and these, though much swollen, retained their angles for six days. Squares of 1/10 of an inch (2.54 mm.), just moistened with water, were placed on two leaves; and after two or three days nothing was left on them but some acid viscid fluid, which in this and other cases never showed any tendency to regelatinise; so that the secretion must act on the gelatine differently to what water does, and apparently in the same manner as gastric juice.* Four squares of the same size as before were then soaked for three days in water, and placed on large leaves; the gelatine was liquefied and rendered acid in two days, but did not excite much inflection. The leaves began to re-expand after four or five days, much viscid fluid being left on their discs, as if but little had been absorbed. One of these leaves, as soon as it re-expanded, caught a small fly, and after 24 hrs. was closely inflected, showing how much more potent than gelatine is the animal matter absorbed from an insect. Some larger pieces of gelatine, soaked for five days in water, were next placed on three leaves, but these did not become much inflected until the third day; nor was the gelatine completely liquefied until the fourth day. On this day one leaf began to re-expand; the second on the fifth; and third on the sixth. These several facts
* Dr. Lauder Brunton, 'Handbook for the Phys. Laboratory,' 1873, pp. 477, 487; Schiff, 'Leons phys. de la Digestion,' 1867, p. 249. [page 112]
prove that gelatine is far from acting energetically on Drosera.
In the last chapter it was shown that a solution of isinglass of commerce, as thick as milk or cream, induces strong inflection.