THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 445 



teeth along their edges, and united by a longitudinal hinge. 

 Each of these palettes is furnished with three pointed 

 spines, placed towards the middle of it, and surrounded by 

 glands, which distil a sugary fluid. When some imprudent 

 insect, attracted by the honeyed juice, lights upon the leaf, 

 this, irritated by the contact, suddenly brings its lobes to- 

 gether, just as we close a book, and pierces it with its darts, 

 compressing it more closely in proportion as it struggles 

 harder. The palettes only open when the animal, quite ex- 

 hausted, ceases to move, but it is then frequently too late ; 

 the prisoner is dead. The leaflets contract with such force 

 that when they are closed they tear sooner than open. 1 



One of our marsh plants, the sun-dew, or Eound-Leaved 

 Drosera {Drosera rotwidifolia, Linn.), is equally treacher- 



1 According to an English savant, the Flytrap Dionrea (Dioncea mmcipula) 

 does not close the panels of its trap merely to punish the insect which irritates 

 it, but to suck out and feed on its juices, so that it would be a carnivorous plant. 

 This observer maintains that such food is so indispensable to the plant that it 

 fades when deprived of it by inclosing it in a framework of wire or perforated 

 zinc; although if, from time to time, a few morsels of meat be placed upon its 

 leaves, the Dionaja remains healthy even when here. 



[The carnivorous habits of certain plants have now been well established by 

 the experiments of Dr. Hooker, Mr. Darwin, and others. Among these vegetable 

 carnivora are the flytrap and sun-dew, mentioned above in the text, the side- 

 saddle plants (Sarracenia) of North America, one of which is figured at page 403, 

 and the pitcher-plants (Nepenthes) of North America, also figured in the preced- 

 ing pages. The Venus' Flytrap contracts with such force as to crush and kill a 

 lly between its lobes. A quantity of juice is then secreted by the inner surface 

 of the leaf, and this fluid is of such a nature as to cause the liquefaction of the 

 insect, and enable it to be absorbed by the plant. This process of liquefaction 

 and absorption is of the same nature as that by which food is digested in the 

 stomach of the higher animals. The pitcher-plant and others also secrete a 

 digestive fluid which enables them to absorb the nutritive elements of their 

 victims. Tk.J 



