keeps the flower pendulous, and its throat erect. Having 
removed from the plant one of the racemes for examination, 
I laid this down on the table, and was surprised to observe 
a crowd of small flies immediately rush out at the throat. 
I raised the flowers into their natural position again, and 
though I saw, by placing them between me and the light, 
that very many flies were still in the tube, all very restless, 
and attempting to escape, not one could climb up the now 
erect throat. I repeated this experiment many times, and 
always with the same result :—in the horizontal position of 
the flower, the flies came out instantly,—in the erect posi- 
tion they were imprisoned. I could not discover, even 
with the microscope, any cause for this, and am forced to 
suppose, that there may be a particular condition of the 
surface in the upper part of the tube, from secretion or 
other cause, which prevents the adhesion of the feet of the 
insects, though they are able to walk along it when hori- 
zontal. 
It is supposed that the confinement of insects in flowers 
is to effect their impregnation, and it has been thought 
that the decay of their bodies in other parts, as in D1- 
onzA, Nepentues, and Sarracenia, tends to the nourish- 
ment of the plant. The first, I believe, is sometimes true ; 
—and though I discredit the second theory, I have not in 
every supposed instance, the means of disproving it. In 
the case under consideration, and I believe in others, the 
object seems altogether different. Years ago, I observed 
a living worm on several of the decayed leaves of Dionza 
_muscipula, and was induced, in consequence, to suspect 
that the capture of certain insects by this plant was not for 
their destruction, but to provide a proper nidus for their 
eggs; and I more confidently believe this to be the case with 
Aristotocuia saccata ; for in all the flowers of this plant 
which I opened, I found many perfect eggs, and many 
living maggots. Some insects wrap up their eggs in leaves; 
to others this instinct is denied ; but protection is extended 
to their race by what, imperfectly understood, has been 
thought an act of unmixed cruelty. 
Descr. Shrub volubile ; stems very long, slender, branch- 
ed ; bark, when old, corky, Leaves (twelve to fifteen inches 
long, four broad) scattered, ovato-cordate, attenuated at 
the apex, slightly waved and sinuated, entire in the edges, 
‘So mmmenae when young covered with brown hairs, which, 
elow, aresilky, more dense, subappressed, and longer than 
above, where they are more erect; leaves when old less 
hairy, 
