What is "lobes"

Usage examples of "lobes".

Structure of the leaves--Sensitiveness of the filaments--Rapid movement of the lobes caused by irritation of the filaments--Glands, their power of secretion--Slow movement caused by the absorption of animal matter--Evidence of absorption from the aggregated condition of the glands--Digestive power of the secretion--Action of chloroform, ether, and hydrocyanic acid--The manner in which insects are captured--Use of the marginal spikes--Kinds of insects captured--The transmission of the motor impulse and mechanism of the movements--Reexpansion of the lobes.

As I was doubtful whether this was due to the cells on the upper surface of the lobes, or to the sensitive filaments, being acted on by exosmose, one leaf was first tried by pouring a little of the same solution in the furrow between the lobes over the midrib, which is the chief seat of movement.

The spikes stand in such a position that, when the lobes close, they interlock like the teeth of a rattrap.

As the filaments project at right angles to the surface of the leaf, they would have been liable to be broken whenever the lobes closed together, had it not been for the articulation which allows them to bend flat down.

But when a rather thick cotton thread of the same length was similarly swayed, the lobes closed.

Although drops of water and of a moderately strong solution of sugar, falling on the filaments, does not excite them, yet the immersion of a leaf in pure water sometimes caused the lobes to close.

We thus see that a short immersion in water does not at all injure the leaves, but sometimes excites the lobes to close.

The upper surface of the lobes, as already stated, is thickly covered with small purplish, almost sessile glands.

If, however, the lobes are made to close over a bit of meat or an insect, the result is different, for the glands over the whole surface of the leaf now secrete copiously.

By forcing up one of the lobes, I was able to see some distance between them, and all the glands within sight were secreting freely.

The bit of albumen, which was now surrounded by much secretion, was gently removed, and although no filament was touched, the lobes closed.

From the foregoing cases it is certain that bits of meat and albumen, if at all damp, excite not only the glands to secrete, but the lobes to close.

It seems hardly credible, and yet it is certainly a fact, that a bit of hardboiled white of egg, first thoroughly dried, then soaked for some minutes in water and rolled on blotting paper, should yield in a few hours enough animal matter to the glands to cause them to secrete, and afterwards the lobes to close.

After nine days the lobes opened spontaneously a little at the end enclosing the cheese, but hardly any or none was dissolved, though it was softened and surrounded by secretion.

The angle between the blade and footstalk does not change when the lobes close.