2 DUOSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. CHAP. I. 



gathered by chance a dozen plants, bearing fifty-six 

 fully expanded leaves, and on thirty-one of these dead 

 insects or remnants of them adhered ; and, no doubt, 

 many more would have been caught afterwards by these 

 same leaves, and still more by those as yet not ex- 

 panded. On one plant all six leaves had caught their 

 prey ; and on several plants very many leaves had 

 caught more than a single insect. On one large leaf 

 I found the remains of thirteen distinct insects. 

 Flies (Diptera) are captured much oftener than other 

 insects. The largest kind which I have seen caught 

 was a small butterfly (Caenonymplia pampliilus) ; but 

 the Kev. H. M. Wilkinson informs me that he found a 

 large living dragon-fly with its body firmly held by 

 two leaves. As this plant is extremely common in 

 some districts, the number of insects thus annually 

 slaughtered must be prodigious. Many plants cause 

 the death of insects, for instance the sticky buds of 

 the horse-chestnut (JEsculus hippocastanum], without 

 thereby receiving, as far as we can perceive, any ad- 

 vantage ; but it was soon evident that Drosera was 



which was published in the Gar- to a paper by Mrs. Treat, of New 

 ilener's Chronicle,' 1863, p. 80. Jersey, on some American species 

 Mr. Scott shows that gentle irrita- of Drosera. Dr. Bnrdon Sander- 

 tion of the hairs, as well as insects sou delivered a lecture on Dionaea, 

 placed on the disc of the leaf, before the Royal Institution 'pub- 

 cause the hairs to bend in- lished in 'Nature,' June 14, 1874), 

 wards. Mr. A. W. Bennett also in which a short account of my 

 gave another interesting account observations on the power of true 

 of the movements of the leaves digestion possessed by Droser.t 

 brfore the British Association for and Dionsea first appeared. Prof. 

 1S73. In this same year Dr. Asa Gray has done good service 

 Warming published an essay, in by calling attention to Drosera, 

 which he describes the structure and to other plants having similar 

 of the so-called hairs, entitled, habits, in ' The Nation' (1874, pp. 

 " Sur la Difference entre les Tri- 2(jl and 232), and in other publica- 

 chomes," &c., extracted from the tions. Dr. Hooker, also, in his 

 proceedings of the Soc. d'Hist. important address on Carnivorous 

 NTat. de Copenhague. I shall also Plants (Brit. Assoc., Belfast, 1874), 

 have occasion hereafter to refer has given a history of the subjirt 



