Insectivorous plants / by Charles Darwin ; revised by Francis Darwin.

  • Charles Darwin
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Insectivorous plants / by Charles Darwin ; revised by Francis Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    process of aggregation has been partly effected than before. The purple fluid which exudes from a crushed tentacle is somewhat coherent, and does not mingle with the surrounding water; it contains much flocculent or granular matter. But this matter may have been generated by the cells having been crushed; some degree of aggregation having been thus almost instantly caused. If a tentacle is examined some hours after the gland has been excited by repeated touches, or by an inorganic or organic particle placed on it, or by the absorption of certain fluids, it presents a wholly changed appearance. The cells, instead of being filled with homogeneous purple fluid, now contain variously shaped masses of purple matter, suspended in a colourless or almost colourless fluid. The change is so conspicuous that it is visible through a weak lens, and even sometimes with the naked eye; the tentacles now have a mottled appearance, so that one thus affected can be picked out with ease from all the others. The same result follows if the glands on the disc are irritated in any manner, so that the exterior tentacles become inflected ; for their contents will then be found in an aggregated condition, although their glands have not as yet touched any object. But aggregation may occur independently of inflection, as we shall presently see. By whatever cause the process may have been excited, it commences within the glands, and then travels down the tentacles. It can be observed much more distinctly in the iipper cells of the pedicels than within the glands, as these are somewhat opaque. Shortly after the tentacles have re- expanded, the little masses of protoplasm are all redissolved, and the purple fluid within the cells becomes as homogeneous and transparent as it was at first. The process of redissolu- tion travels upwards from the bases of the tentacles to the glands, and therefore in a reversed direction to that of aggregation. Tentacles in an aggregated condition were shown to Prof. Huxley, Dr. Hooker, and Dr. Burdon Sanderson, who observed the changes under the microscope, and were much struck with the whole phenomenon. The little masses of aggregated matter are of the most diversified shapes, often spherical or oval, sometimes much elongated, or quite irregular with thread- or necklace-like or club-formed projections. They consist of thick, apparently viscid matter, which in the exterior tentacles is of a purplish, and in the short discal tentacles of a greenish, colour. These P
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