184 THE PLANT WOELD 



leaf, attracted by the smell of the sticky fluid (I have seen (juite a large 

 yellow spider so caught), he is caught and held by its gummy mass ; the 

 hairs then hold and clutch him, pouring out a fresh exudation at the 

 same time, which shortly envelops and digests him. In the course of a 

 few hours the leaf has sucked the poor victim's juices, and used them in 

 the manufacture of its own protoplasm. Nature being unable to pro- 

 vide the nitrogen needed, in the boggy earth, the sundews take this 

 means of securing the same. The rivulets in the bog are beautified by 

 the exquisite golden helmets of the bladderwort ( Utrwularia). When 

 taken from the water the roots are covered with a black ooze, which on 

 being carefully washed away, disclose a string of small bladders, that 

 supply the plant with liquid manure, not oidy from water-beetle, larvae 

 and other insects, but also from trout and other young fry of fresh water 

 fishes. Wliile the sundew and other carniverous plants are forced to 

 catch and digest their prey, the bladderworts and other water trappers 

 save themselves that additional trouble and expense by macerating and 

 soaking it, till it reaches the condition of a liquid manure ready dis- 

 solved for absorption and easy to assimilate. 

 New York City. PaulINE KaUFMAN. 



The Wild Flower Preservation 



Society 



An editorial statement in connection with the Society, published in 

 the July issue of the American Botanist, received by us on September 

 6, seems to have been deliberately made with the object of misleading 

 the public. The paragraph is here quoted in its entirety : 



" It is interesting to observe the different ways in which our tAvo 

 societies for the protection of plants go about the business in hand. 

 The original " Society for the Protection of Native Plants " has already 

 issued six leaflets calling attention to the plants that need pro- 

 tection and suggesting means of protecting them. The latest publica- 

 tion is a poster, which is sent free to any one who will place it in a con- 

 spicuous place. Membership in this society costs nothing, and the 

 leaflets are sent to all who enroll as members. The secretary is Miss 

 Maria E, Carter, Boston Society of Natural History, Boston, Mass. 

 The imitator of this society, the " "Wild Flower Preservation Society of 

 America," is approaching the subject by means of illustrated lectures 

 held mostly in our larger cities. Membership in this society costs a 



