[74]

(31

Experiments showing the influence of nitrogenous & non-nitrogenous fluids liquids fluids, when dropped placed on the glands of the centre of the leaf, central disc leaves in cause their inflation of the tentacles.

At some a first when in 1861 I suspected that the glands   leaves  absorbed nutritious matter from the numerous insects which when they caught   by the aid of a viscid secretion & through the well-adapted movement of their tentacles, it occurred to me that it would be admirable to try [illeg pencil insertion]  the effects of various very common fluids, [illeg pencil insertion] containing & not containing nitrogenous matter. A small drop of the fluid was allowed to fall from the same pointed instrument in all cases on the centre of the leaf under trial; but nowhere in most cases occasionally a very large drop was [illeg pencil insertion] [2 words illeg] also occasionally used tried. I ascertained by taking more than once a measured quantity of water that add up to usual drops in the case of water & of other thin fluids was on an average very nearly half a minim at 1/960 part of an fluid ounce. Only a single    never more than a single   leaf on the same plant was operated on; so that  & to

[archivist's note: '(Ch. V p.76)'. See Insectivorous plants, p. 76.]