THE VENUS FLY-TRAP 



By H. A. Rankin 



T F your invitation in the last issue of the Botanist may be 

 •*■ accepted by one who is merely a nature lover, I will be 

 glad to make a few observations, and to present as Eastern 

 North Carolina's most interesting plant Venus' fly-trap 

 (Dionaea musciptila) which, Darwin in his "Insectivorous 

 Plants" says is one of the most wonderful plants in the 

 world and which he also says grows only in Eastern North 

 Carolina, so that our section is the only one which may pre- 

 sent it. 



The savanna lands of this state are clothed with a pro- 

 fusion of flowers in great variety from the earliest spring 

 flower, Cliaptalia tomcntosa, which I have found as early as 

 February fifteenth, until tlie last of the grass of parnassus 

 is killed by hard frosts as late as November fifteenth. 



.Where there are many flowers there are many insects 

 and where there are many insects their enemies abound 

 and here, taking their places among the birds, bats, frogs, 

 lizards, and other enemies we find a group of insectivorous 

 plants with wonderfully developed means of catching their 

 prey. 



One can easily find spots not larger than fifty feet 

 square in which mav be found Droscra filifonnis, D. rotiindi- 

 folia, or. it may be I), longifolia, Sarracenia purpurea, S. 

 flaz'a, C. z'uriolaris, Fingicida vulgaris, and Venus' fly-traj). 



An early morning walk may show you a slight depres- 

 sion where the dew seems heavier, and, more than elsewhere, 

 the dew-covered webs glisten in the sun. Closer inspection 

 will .show that this is not all dew but that it is a bed of 



