Insectivorous Plants (Paperback)

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1915 Original Publisher: D. Appleton and Company Subjects: Carnivorous plants Plants Gardening / General Nature / Plants Science / Life Sciences / Biology / General Science / Life Sciences / Botany Science / Life Sciences / Evolution Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V. THE EFFECTS OF NON-NITROGENOUS AND NITROGENOUS ORGANIC FLUIDS ON THE LEAVES. Non-nitrogenous fluids -- Solutions of gum arable -- Sugar -- Starch -- Diluted alcohol -- Olive oil -- Infusion and decoction of tea -- Nitrogenous fluids -- Milk -- Urine -- Liquid albumen -- Infusion of raw meat -- Impure mucus -- Saliva -- Solution of isinglass -- Difference in the action of these two sets of fluids -- Decoction of green peas -- Decoction and infusion of cabbage -- Decoction of grass leaves. When, in 1860, I first observed Drosera, and was led to believe that the leaves absorbed nutritious matter from insects which they captured, it seemed to me a good plan to make some preliminary trials with a few common fluids, containing and not containing nitrogenous matter: and the results are worth giving. In all the following cases a drop was allowed to fall from the same pointed instrument on the centre of the leaf; and by repeated trials one of these drops was ascertained to be on an average very nearly half a minim, or fv of a fluid ounce, or .0295 cc. But these measurements obviously do not pretend to any strict accuracy; moreover, the drops of the viscid fluids were plainly larger than those of water. Only one leaf on the same plant was tried, and the plants were collected from two distant localities. The experiments were made during August and September. In judgin...