HAKDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-Q OSSIP. 



231 



ing of the Association by Dr. Burdon Sanderson. 

 All students of tlie A'egetable side of organized 

 nature were astonished to hear that certain experi- 

 ments which Dr. Sanderson, at the instigation of 

 Mr. Darwin, had made, proved to demonstration 

 that when a leaf of Dionsea contracts, the effects 

 produced are precisely similar to those whicli occur 

 when muscle contracts. Not merely are the pheno- 

 mena of digestion in this wonderful plant like those 

 of animals, but the phenomena of contractility agree 

 with those of animals also. Not confined to a 

 single district in the New World, but distributed 

 over the temperate parts of both hemispheres, in 

 sandy and marshy places, are the curious plants 

 called Sun- dews— the species of the genus Drosera. 

 They are now known to be near congeners of 

 Dionffia ; a fact which was little more than guessed 

 at when their curious habits were first discovered. 



The President proceeded to trace at much length 

 the interesting history of the Sun-dew. It is to 

 Mr. Darwin we are indebted for the latest and most 

 important additions to the facts established by the 

 earliest observers. Subsequeut botanists had boldly 

 asserted that the early accounts given of the Sun- 

 dew were not true. The repeated testimony of 

 various observers, with respect to Diontea and 

 Drosera spreads over a century, and though at no 

 time warmly received, must, I think, satisfy you 

 that in this small family of the Droseracea we have 

 plants which, in the first place, capture animals for 

 purposes of food ; and, in the second, digest and 

 dissolve them by means of a fluid which is poured 

 out for the purpose ; and, thirdly, absorb the solu- 

 tion of animal matter which is so produced. Before 

 the investigations of Mr. Darwin had led other 

 persons to work at the s\ibject, the meaning of the 

 phenomena was very little appreciated. Only a few 

 years ago, Duchartre, a French physiological bota- 

 nist, after mentioning the views of Ellis and Curtis 

 with respect to Dionsea, expressed his opinion that 

 the idea that its leaves absorbed dissolved animal 

 substances was too evidently in disagreement with 

 our knowledge of the function of leaves, and the 

 whole course of vegetable nutrition, to deserve 

 being seriously discussed. Perhaps if the Brosera- 

 cca were an isolated case of a group of plants 

 exhibiting propensities of this kind, there might be 

 some reason for such a criticism. But we have 

 now reason lo believe that there are many instances 

 of these carnivorous habits in different parts of the 

 vegetable kingdom, and among plants which have 

 nothing else in common but this. As another 

 illustration I shall take the very curious group of 

 Pitcher-plants, which is peculiar to the New World. 

 The genus Sarracenia consists of eight species, all 

 similar in habit, and all natives of the Eastern 

 States of North Ameiica, where they are found 

 more especially in bogs, and even in places covered 

 with shallow water. Their leaves, which give them 



a character entirely their own, are pitcher-shaped 

 and trumpet-like, and are collected in tufts spring- 

 ing immediately from the ground ; and they send 

 up at the flowering season one or more slender 

 stems, bearing each a solitary flower. This has a 

 singular aspect, due, to a great extent, to the 

 umbrella-like expansion in which the style ter- 

 minates ; the shape of this, or perhaps of the whole 

 flower, caused the first English settlers to give to 

 the plant the name of Side-saddle Elower. The 

 first fact which was observed about the Pitchers 

 was that when they gi'ew they contained water. 



The description of the various species, and their 

 history, was then given by Dr. Hooker, and was 

 very long and exhaustive. In 1S29, Burnett wrote 

 a paper containing a good many original ideas, 

 expressed in a somewhat quaint fashion, in whicli 

 he very strongly insisted on the existence of a true 

 digestive process in the case of Sarracenia, analo- 

 gous to that which takes place in the stomach of an 

 animal. Our knowledge of the power of Sarracenia 

 variolaris is now pretty complete, owing to the 

 observations of two South Carolina physicians. 

 One, Dr. M'Bride, made his observations half a 

 century ago, but they had, till quite recently, com- 

 pletely fallen into oblivion. He devoted himself to 

 the task of ascertaining why it was that Sarracenia 

 variolaris was visited by flies, and how it was that 

 it captured them. Dr. Mellichamp, who is now 

 resident in the district in which Dr. M'Bride made 

 his observations, has added a good many particulars 

 to our knowledge. It is evident that there ai-e two 

 very different types of pitcher in Sarracenia, and 

 an examination of the species shows that there 

 must probably be three. These may be primarily 

 classified into those with the mouth open and lid 

 erect, and Avhich consequently receive the rain- 

 water in more or less abundance ; and those with 

 the mouth closed by the lid, into which rain can 

 hardly, if at all, find ingress. I c:mnot take leave 

 of Sarracenia without a short notice of its near 

 ally, Darlhujtonia, a still more wonderful plant, au 

 outlier of Sarracenia in geographical distribution, 

 being found at an elevation of five thousand feet on 

 the Sierra Nevada of California, far west of any 

 locality inhabited by Sarracenia. It has pitchers 

 of two forms ; one, peculiar to the infant state of 

 the plant, consists of narrow, somewhat twisted, 

 trumpet-shaped tubes, with very oblique open 

 mouths, the dorsal lip of which is drawn out into 

 a long, slender arching, scarlet hood, that hardly 

 closes the mouth. The slight twist in the tube 

 causes these mouths to point in various directions, 

 and they entrap very small insects only. Before 

 arriving at a state of maturity the plant bears 

 much larger, subcrect pitchers, also twisted, with 

 the tip produced into a large inflated hood, that 

 completely arches over a very small entrance to 

 the cavity of the pitcher. A singular orange-red, 



