46 
(Spirodela) ; very common ; N. Y.; fertile, Staten Is., vid. Vol 
I. No. 8, § 61, & seqq. 
WOLFFIA, Horkel, Schleiden.—W, Columbiana, Karsted; Closter, rare, 
also Orange Co., Austin. é 
81, Apocynum, No. 1—One of the most charming of our native 
plants is the Apocynum androsemifolum, L., notwithstanding its long 
name. The beautiful clusters of rosy bells, with their pink bars and 
delicate fragrance, claim for it a place in the garden, where, however, 
we do not meet with it, but on open banks and by the side of roads 
or cultivated fields. It is well approved, too, by the insect tribe, 
who are in general much more appreciative judges of color and odor 
than we are. In Europe, where it is not native, it is cultivated in 
gardens, and according to Lamarck (Encyc. Article, Apocynum) is 
called gobe-mouche, which may be rendered fly-trap. I translate 
what he has to say on this subject. “The name gobe-mouche has 
been given to it, because the flies, in their greed of the honeyed 
juice which is found at the bottom of its flowers, insinuate their 
trunks by the narrow passage which is found between the small 
bodies which surround the ovaries, and the ovaries themselves, and 
when these insects would withdraw their bill, it is found to be held 
the faster, the more efforts they make to withdraw it. Thus these 
insects, half buried ia the flowers, are caught as in a trap, and 
perish there without power to escape.”’ Smith, in Rees’ Encyc., 
Says more generally and, as we propose to ‘show, more accurately: 
“If flies alight on this plant they are frequently entangled by the 
glutinous matter and destroyed. Hence the plant has been called 
“‘ Herb ala puce.” The author of the “Journal of a Naturalist,” Lon- 
don, 3d Ed. p. 78, says: “ Allured by the honey on the nectary of 
the expanded blossom, the instant the trunk is protruded to feed on 
_ it, the filaments close, and catching the fly by the extremity of its 
proboscis, detain the poor prisoner writhing in protracted struggles 
till released by death, a death apparently occasioned by exhaustion 
alone; the filaments then relax and the body falls to the ground. 
The plant will at times be dusky from the numbers of imprisoned 
wretches.” The figure this author gives. of the anthersis certainly 
inaccurate, and he represents the anthers as standing apart at the 
top, a position which they cannot assume. His use of the term fila- 
ments, too, implies that he had no correct notion of the case. Last 
summer, while sojourning among the Catskill Mts.,I spent hours 
in watching this plant, but was never so fortunate as to see an in- 
sect caught, though there were many traces of them to be found m 
the shape of lost members, &c. It would seem, therefore, that our 
native insects are not so readily entrapped. hore Oe 
s These are all the authorities I have been able to find on. the fer- 
tilization of Apocynacee, excepting always C. K. Sprengel, to whom 
I may have occasion to refer hereafter. If any of my readers can 
indicate any other writings elucidating the modus operandi, the in 
formation would be very gratefully received. W. H. L. 
