Two leaves were exposed for 30 m. in a 2-oz: vessel to the vapour of 30 minims (1.774 ml.) of sulphuric ether. One leaf closed after a time, as did the other whilst being removed from the vessel without being touched. Both leaves were greatly injured. Another leaf, exposed for 20 m. to 15 minims of ether, closed its lobes to a certain extent, and the sensitive filaments were now quite insensible. After 24 hrs. this leaf recovered its sensibility, but was still rather torpid. A leaf exposed in a large bottle for only 3 m. to ten drops was rendered insensible. After 52 m. it recovered its sensibility, and when one of the filaments was touched, the lobes closed. It began [page 305] to reopen after 20 hrs. Lastly another leaf was exposed for 4 m. to only four drops of the ether; it was rendered insensible, and did not close when its filaments were repeatedly touched, but closed when the end of the open leaf was cut off. This shows either that the internal parts had not been rendered insensible, or that an incision is a more powerful stimulus than repeated touches on the filaments. Whether the larger doses of chloroform and ether, which caused the leaves to close slowly, acted on the sensitive filaments or on the leaf itself, I do not know.
Cyanide of potassium, when left in a bottle, generates prussic or hydrocyanic acid. A leaf was exposed for 1 hr. 35 m. to the vapour thus formed; and the glands became within this time so colourless and shrunken as to be scarcely visible, and I at first thought that they had all dropped off. The leaf was not rendered insensible; for as soon as one of the filaments was touched it closed. It had, however, suffered, for it did not reopen until nearly two days had passed, and was not even then in the least sensitive. After an additional day it recovered its powers, and closed on being touched and subsequently reopened. Another leaf behaved in nearly the same manner after a shorter exposure to this vapour.]
On the Manner in which Insects are caught.—We will now consider the action of the leaves when insects happen to touch one of the sensitive filaments. This often occurred in my greenhouse, but I do not know whether insects are attracted in any special way by the leaves. They are caught in large numbers by the plant in its native country. As soon as a filament is touched, both lobes close with astonishing quickness; and as they stand at less than a right angle to each other, they have a good chance of catching any intruder. The angle between the blade and footstalk does not change when the lobes close. The chief seat of movement is near the midrib, but is not confined to this part; for, as the lobes come together, each curves inwards across its whole breadth; the marginal spikes however, not becoming curved. This move- [page 306] ment of the whole lobe was well seen in a leaf to which a large fly had been given, and from which a large portion had been cut off the end of one lobe; so that the opposite lobe, meeting with no resistance in this part, went on curving inwards much beyond the medial line. The whole of the lobe, from which a portion had been cut, was afterwards removed, and the opposite lobe now curled completely over, passing through an angle of from 120o to 130o, so as to occupy a position almost at right angles to that which it would have held had the opposite lobe been present.
From the curving inwards of the two lobes, as they move towards each other, the straight marginal spikes intercross by their tips at first, and ultimately by their bases. The leaf is then completely shut and encloses a shallow cavity. If it has been made to shut merely by one of the sensitive filaments having been touched, or if it includes an object not yielding soluble nitrogenous matter, the two lobes retain their inwardly concave form until they re-expand. The re-expansion under these circumstances—that is when no organic matter is enclosed—was observed in ten cases. In all of these, the leaves re-expanded to about two-thirds of the full extent in 24 hrs. from the time of closure. Even the leaf from which a portion of one lobe had been cut off opened to a slight degree within this same time. In one case a leaf re-expanded to about two-thirds of the full extent in 7 hrs., and completely in 32 hrs.; but one of its filaments had been touched merely with a hair just enough to cause the leaf to close. Of these ten leaves only a few re-expanded completely in less than two days, and two or three required even a little longer time. Before, however, they fully re-expand, they are ready to close [page 307] instantly if their sensitive filaments are touched. How many times a leaf is capable of shutting and opening if no animal matter is left enclosed, I do not know; but one leaf was made to close four times, reopening afterwards, within six days, On the last occasion it caught a fly, and then remained closed for many days.
This power of reopening quickly after the filaments have been accidentally touched by blades of grass, or by objects blown on the leaf by the wind, as occasionally happens in its native place,* must be of some importance to the plant; for as long as a leaf remains closed, it cannot of course capture an insect.
When the filaments are irritated and a leaf is made to shut over an insect, a bit of meat, albumen, gelatine, casein, and, no doubt, any other substance containing soluble nitrogenous matter, the lobes, instead of remaining concave, thus including a concavity, slowly press closely together throughout their whole breadth. As this takes place, the margins gradually become a little everted, so that the spikes, which at first intercrossed, at last project in two parallel rows. The lobes press against each other with such force that I have seen a cube of albumen much flattened, with distinct impressions of the little prominent glands; but this latter circumstance may have been partly caused by the corroding action of the secretion. So firmly do they become pressed together that, if any large insect or other object has been caught, a corresponding projection on the outside of the leaf is distinctly visible. When the two lobes are thus completely shut, they
* According to Dr. Curtis, in ‘Boston Journal of Nat. Hist,’ vol. i 1837, p. 123. [page 308]
resist being opened, as by a thin wedge driven between them, with astonishing force, and are generally ruptured rather than yield. If not ruptured, they close again, as Dr. Canby informs me in a letter, “with quite a loud flap.” But if the end of a leaf is held firmly between the thumb and finger, or by a clip, so that the lobes cannot begin to close, they exert, whilst in this position, very little force.
I thought at first that the gradual pressing together of the lobes was caused exclusively by captured insects crawling over and repeatedly irritating the sensitive filaments; and this view seemed the more probable when I learnt from Dr. Burdon Sanderson that whenever the filaments of a closed leaf are irritated, the normal electric current is disturbed. Nevertheless, such irritation is by no means necessary, for a dead insect, or a bit of meat, or of albumen, all act equally well; proving that in these cases it is the absorption of animal matter which excites the lobes slowly to press close together. We have seen that the absorption of an extremely small quantity of such matter also causes a fully expanded leaf to close slowly; and this movement is clearly analogous to the slow pressing together of the concave lobes. This latter action is of high functional importance to the plant, for the glands on both sides are thus brought into contact with a captured insect, and consequently secrete. The secretion with animal matter in solution is then drawn by capillary attraction over the whole surface of the leaf, causing all the glands to secrete and allowing them to absorb the diffused animal matter. The movement, excited by the absorption of such matter, though slow, suffices for its final purpose, whilst the movement excited by one of the sensitive filaments being touched is rapid, and this is indis- [page 309] pensable for the capturing of insects. These two movements, excited by two such widely different means, are thus both well adapted, like all the other functions of the plant, for the purposes which they subserve.
There is another wide difference in the action of leaves which enclose objects, such as bits of wood, cork, balls of paper, or which have had their filaments merely touched, and those which enclose organic bodies yielding soluble nitrogenous matter. In the former case the leaves, as we have seen, open in under 24 hrs. and are then ready, even before being fully-expanded, to shut again. But if they have closed over nitrogen-yielding bodies, they remain closely shut for many days; and after re-expanding are torpid, and never act again, or only after a considerable interval of time. In four instances, leaves after catching insects never reopened, but began to wither, remaining closed—in one case for fifteen days over a fly; in a second, for twenty-four days, though the fly was small; in a third for twenty-four days over a woodlouse; and in a fourth, for thirty-five days over a large Tipula. In two other cases leaves remained closed for at least nine days over flies, and for how many more I do not know. It should, however, be added that in two instances in which very small insects had been naturally caught the leaf opened as quickly as if nothing had been caught; and I suppose that this was due to such small insects not having been crushed or not having excreted any animal matter, so that the glands were not excited. Small angular bits of albumen and gelatine were placed at both ends of three leaves, two of which remained closed for thirteen and the other for twelve days. Two other leaves remained closed over bits of [page 310] meat for eleven days, a third leaf for eight days, and a fourth (but this had been cracked and injured) for only six days. Bits of cheese, or casein, were placed at one end and albumen at the other end of three leaves; and the ends with the former opened after six, eight, and nine days, whilst the opposite ends opened a little later. None of the above bits of meat, albumen, &c., exceeded a cube of 1/10 of an inch (2.54 mm.) in size, and were sometimes smaller; yet these small portions sufficed to keep the leaves closed for many days. Dr. Canby informs me that leaves remain shut for a longer time over insects than over meat; and from what I have seen, I can well believe that this is the case, especially if the insects are large.