The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. & Francis Darwin. [1874]. U. nelumbifolia. CUL-DAR59.1.145-146. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 10.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR 54-61 contain material for Darwin's book Insectivorous plants (1875).

Utricularia is a genus of carnivorous plants known as bladderworts. These notes are for Darwin, C. R. 1875. Insectivorous plants. London: John Murray. (F1217)

"The social breadth of the network that Darwin drew on in his work on insectivorous plants was remarkable. The aristocratic horticulturist Dorothy Nevill hugely admired Darwin and was always eager to help by sending specimens from her well-stocked garden. ...[She] supplied Darwin with a specimen of Utricularia montana to work on. At first, Darwin mistook the empty stem tubers for bladders; when he found that the real bladders, which were very small and transparent and on the roots, captured prey, he exclaimed: 'I have hardly ever enjoyed a day more in my life than this day's work' (letter to D. F. Nevill, 18 September [1874]). Francis's new wife, Amy, drew the plant (letter to Francis Darwin, [17 September 1874])…Utricularia montana is an epiphytic species of bladderwort, native to the Antilles and northern South America. [It] is a synonym of U. alpina." Correspondence vol. 22, pp. xxviii, 447.

[145]

Keep Dead Plant

U. nelumbifolia— Brazil true Bladders on roots (state of nature) with antennæ & papillæ [illeg] & general shape like U. montana.

Prey with long spines in 1 bladder examined apparently a crustacean & not very small.

Antennæ ~~like~~ long of the Montana type. Papillæ simple & very numerous

Valve very transparent & structureless with gland of same type

Quadrifids of ~~montana~~ [sketch] this type.

U. amethystina (habitat) [Pellti] the type "In Guiana apparently a marsh plant"

Plant looks as if it grew in marshes with some small entire leaves; on roots a few bladders, one of which contained 2 crustaceans, so that I suppose it must live almost in water. Spiral vessel in petiole. Bladder of nearly usual shape, with quadrifids with papillæ outside of Montana type inside. The orifice differs wonderfully, the free part of the antennæ is a mere rudiment,

[146]

the basal part, connected by a membrane, hollowed out in middle. This large membrane with the 2 free points evidently represents the 2 antennæ & is clothed closed on inner side with innumerable glands with very long foot-stalks, of oblong type. These are chiefly arranged in 2 converging rows, towards the valve (there are some glands on the exterior margins of the antenna-membrane) On opposite side there are innumerable glands of same type, which extent all along short ventral surface as far as the petiole. Hence the orifice, seen under a weak power seems surrounded by innumerable thin hairs. The valve is narrow, with a very few shorter glands towards the hinge. There is a well-marked yellowish rim Collar of usual character—

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)