My dear F.

You c^d. make aggregation less intense by using much weaker sol. of C. of Ammonia; or by putting minute splinters of glass on glands.²

If your case of Teazle holds good it is a wonderful discovery. Try whether pure water or weak infusion of raw meat will bring out the protoplasmic masses.³ The closest analogy seems to me that of an independent Amœba or Foraminiferous animal &c which feeds by involving at any point of its gelatinous body particles of organic matter & then rejecting them— A mass of rotting insects would give such particles.— Perhaps this is your view. But I do not understand what you mean by a resinous secretion becoming slimy, or about living insects being caught. I would work at this subject, if I were you, to the point of death.⁴

If an Amœba-like mass comes out of cells & catches dead particles & digest them, it w^d. beat all to fits true digesting plants.

I never saw anything come out of quadrifids of Utricularia & I c^d. hardly have failed to see them, as I was on look out for secretion.⁵ It w^d be a grand discovery. Could you chop up or pound excessively fine raw meat, or better $\frac{1}{2}$ decayed meat & colour the particles first, & then you c^d see them in the protoplasmic masses; for surely you could hardly expect (unless there is a distinct hole) that they sh^d. be withdrawn within cells of glands.— The case is grand—

Are any orifices or orifice visible in cut-off summit of gland? For heaven sake report progress of your work.—

I see in last G. Chronicle another man denies that Dionæa profits by absorption & digestion, which he does not deny.⁶ It seems to me a monstrous conclusion— But this subject ought to be investigated   Especially effects on Seed-bearing— Teazles good. for this—

Yours affec^ly— | C. Darwin

No doubt marginal glands of Drosera answer to glands on serratures of other leaves. Probably glands w^d. be found on apices of spikes of Dionæa in bud-state.⁷