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VIII. On the Power of Sarracenia adunca to entrap Insects. In 
Letter to Sir James E. Smith, Pres. Linn. Soc., from James Ma 
bride, M.D. of South Carolina. 
Read December 19, 1815. 
SIR, 
Your remarks on the ceconomy of the Sarracenie in your Intro- 
duction to Botany, led me to think of making this communication ; 
and I was emboldened to undertake it from having observed in 
your prefatory remarks on the study of this science, a spirit of pe- 
culiar liberality and disinterestedness. M y object is to lay before 
you the result of my observations on the insect-destroying-process 
carried on by the tubular leaves of these plants. 
It will hardly be necessary to inform you that the Sarracenia 
flava and S. adunca (S. minor of Walter, and S. variolaris of Mi- 
chaux,) grow in the flat country of this state in great abundance. 
With the latter my experiments have been chiefly conducted. If, 
in the months of May, June, or July, when the leaves of these 
plants perform their extraordinary functions in the greatest per- 
fection, some of them be removed to a house and fixed in an erect 
position, it will soon be perceived that flies are attracted by them. 
These insects immediately approach the fauces of the leaves, and 
leaning over their edges appear to sip with eagerness something 
from their internal surfaces. In this position they linger; but at 
length, allured as it would seem by the pleasure of taste, they 
enter the tubes. The fly which has thus changed its situation, 
will be seen to stand unsteadily, it totters for a few seconds, slips, 
and 
