168 



THIC LEAVES, 



of the shoots of the common Barberry offer a familiar instance of 

 the kind (Fig. 29 G). The most extraordinmy modification of the 

 leaf occurs in the 



301. Fly-traps of Dionaja muscipuhi, the Venus's Fly-trap of North 



Carolina (which is found only 

 in the vicinity of AYilming- 

 ton, where it abounds in 

 wet and sandy bogs). Each 



298 



leaf of tliis most curious plant bears at its summit an append- 

 age (answering, perhaps, to the proper blade), which opens and 

 shuts : fringed with strong bristles or slender teeth on its margin, 

 it bears some resemblance to a steel-trap, and operates much like 

 one. For when open, as it commonly is when tlie sun shines, 

 no sooner does a fly alight on its surface, and brush against any 

 one of the several long bristles that grow there, tlian the trap 

 suddenly closes, often capturing the intruder, pressing it all the 

 hai-der for its struggles, and commonly depriving it of life. After 

 all movement has ceased Avithin, the trap slowly opens, and is ready 

 for another capture. AVhy this plant catches insects, we are unable 

 to say ; and as to the mechanism of the movement it is no more and 

 no less explicable than the much slower movements of ordinary 

 leaves in changing their position. 



FIG. 297. A plant of Dionrea muscipula, reduced in size. 298. Three of the leaves, of 

 nearly the natural size ; one of them, open, the others closed. 



