290 Mr. Burnett on the Adumbrations 



cient proof. I have often seen several flies or worms in the 

 possession of one of these small plants, which was flourishing 

 by its prowess, and fattening on the delicates it had caught. 

 But in the Sarracennia the number is still greater, often, in the 

 larger plants, so great as to cast a strong and offensive efflu- 

 vium around. The decomposition, however, is a necessary 

 process; and it is, probably, both modified and checked by 

 the saccharine secretions of the plants, which, like the gastric 

 fluids of the animal stomach, may be fitted, not only to digest, 

 but also to retard or regulate the putrefaction of the ingested 

 food. To pursue the parallel, Rumphius has observed that, 

 within these pouches, a certain small squilla or shrimp, with a 

 protuberant back, is sometimes met with which lives there ; 

 so that even this simple digestive apparatus is not free from 

 intestinal worms. Other more serious diseases would seem 

 likewise not unfrequently to prevail, for the discoloured spots 

 in the pouches of Sarracennia indicate serious disorganization, 

 and the powerful and rapid decomposition of food, when taken 

 in too great abundance, may fancifully be likened to indigestion 

 from repletion, and then the occasional offensive odours may 

 perhaps be symptomatic of vegetable dyspepsia. 



The water in these receptacles, impregnated by the half- 

 decomposing animal matter, doubtless affords a highly-nutri- 

 tive and invigorating diet to the plant, for it is well-known that 

 the drainings of dunghills give a very powerful stimulus to 

 vegetables, as the rainwater that percolates there-through dis- 

 solves and carries with it, in solution, much of the nutritious 

 and more subtle ingredients of manure ; and as the food of 

 plants is chiefly, if not wholly, absorbed in a fluid state, the 

 more soluble manures are ever the most conducive to their 

 growth. Nor must the nitrogen thus afforded to the prehen- 

 sile plants be overlooked in the account, when we know how 

 potent an excitant ammonia is to the vegetable frame. These 

 speculations would seem, in some measure, to admit of ex- 

 perimental proof, for the Sarracennise, if kept from the access 

 of flies, are said to be less flourishing in their growth, than 

 when each pouch is truly a sarcophagus ; and further, I remem- 

 ber to have either heard or read of a physiological experiment 

 made on two plants of Dionaea Muscipula, selected for this 



