UTRICULARIA MINOR.
FIG. 25. (Utricularia minor.) Quadrifid process, greatly enlarged.
This rare species was sent me in a living state from Cheshire, through the kindness of Mr. John Price. The leaves and bladders are much smaller than those of Utricularia neglecta. The leaves bear fewer and shorter bristles, and the bladders are more globular. The antennæ, instead of projecting in front of the bladders, are curled under the valve, and are armed with twelve or fourteen extremely long multicellular bristles, generally arranged in pairs. These, with seven or eight long bristles on both sides of the peristome, form a sort of net over the valve, which would tend to prevent all animals, excepting very small ones, entering the bladder. The valve and collar have the same essential structure as in the two previous species; but the glands are not quite so numerous; the oblong ones are rather more elongated, whilst the two-armed ones are rather less elongated. The four bristles which project obliquely from the lower edge of the valve are short. Their shortness, compared with those on the valves of the foregoing species, is intelligible if my view is correct that they serve to prevent too large animals forcing an entrance through the valve, thus injuring it; for the valve is already protected to a certain extent by the incurved antennæ, together with the lateral bristles. The bifid processes are like those in the previous species; but the quadrifids differ in the four arms (fig. 25) [page 430] being directed to the same side; the two longer ones being central, and the two shorter ones on the outside.
The plants were collected in the middle of July; and the contents of five bladders, which from their opacity seemed full of prey, were examined. The first contained no less than twenty-four minute fresh-water crustaceans, most of them consisting of empty shells, or including only a few drops of red oily matter; the second contained twenty; the third, fifteen; the fourth, ten, some of them being rather larger than usual; and the fifth, which seemed stuffed quite full, contained only seven, but five of these were of unusually large size. The prey, therefore, judging from these five bladders, consists exclusively of fresh-water crustaceans, most of which appeared to be distinct species from those found in the bladders of the two former species. In one bladder the quadrifids in contact with a decaying mass contained numerous spheres of granular matter, which slowly changed their forms and positions.
UTRICULARIA CLANDESTINA.
This North American species, which is aquatic like the three foregoing ones, has been described by Mrs. Treat, of New Jersey, whose excellent observations have already been largely quoted. I have not as yet seen any full description by her of the structure of the bladder, but it appears to be lined with quadrifid processes. A vast number of captured animals were found within the bladders; some being crustaceans, but the greater number delicate, elongated larvæ, I suppose of Culicidae. On some stems, “fully nine out of every ten bladders contained these larvæ or their remains.” The larvæ “showed signs of life from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after being imprisoned,” and then perished. [page 431]
CHAPTER XVIII.
UTRICULARIA (continued).
Utricularia montana—Description of the bladders on the subterranean rhizomes—Prey captured by the bladders of plants under culture and in a state of nature—Absorption by the quadrifid processes and glands—Tubers serving as reservoirs for water—Various other species of Utricularia—Polypompholyx—Genlisea, different nature of the trap for capturing prey— Diversified methods by which plants are nourished.
FIG. 26. (Utricularia montana.) Rhizome swollen into a tuber; the branches bearing minute bladders; of natural size.