306 DAHWINIANA. 



the earliest native botanist of this country. Fine 

 writing was his foible ; and the preface to his well- 

 known " Travels " (published at Philadelphia in 1791) 

 is its full-blown illustration, sometimes perhaps de- 

 serving the epithet which he applies to the palms of 

 Florida — that of pomposity. In this preface he de- 

 clares that " all the Sarracenias are insect-catchers, and 

 so is the Drosera rotundifolia. "Whether the insects 

 caught in their leaves, and which dissolve and mix 

 with the fluid, serve for aliment or support to these 

 kind of plants is doubtful," he thinks, but he should 

 be credited with the suggestion. In one sentence he 

 speaks of the quantities of insects which, "being in- 

 vited down to sip the mellifluous exuvia from the in- 

 terior surface of the tube, where they inevitably per- 

 ish," being prevented from returning by the stiff hairs 

 all pointing downward. This, if it refers to the sweet 

 secretion, would place it below r , and not, as it is, above 

 the bristly surface, while the liquid below, charged 

 with decomposing insects, is declared in an earlier 

 sentence to be " cool and animating, limpid as the 

 morning dew." Eartram was evidently writing from 

 memory ; and it is very doubtful if he ever distinctly 

 recognized the sweet exudation which entices in- 



sects. 



Why should these plants take to organic food more 

 than others ? If we cannot answer the question, we 

 may make a probable step toward it. For plants that 

 are not parasitic, these, especially the sundews, have 

 much less than the ordinary amount of chlorophyll — 

 that is, of the universal leaf -green upon which the for- 

 mation of organic matter out of inorganic materials 



