THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 67 



The best-known of Thoreau's works are the two books 

 already mentioned. Others are "The Maine Woods," "Cape 

 Cod," "A Yankee in Canada" and "Excursions." Several 

 others have been issued since his death, compiled from the vol- 

 uminous journals which he kept for many years. Those who 

 have not dipped into them, would do well to try "Walden." 

 In passing it may be mentioned that the herbarium of Tho- 

 reau is deposited in the public library at Concord where it may 

 be seen by those who so desire. 



TRICKY PLANTS. 

 By Dr. W. W. Bailey. 



AVT'E are so much in the habit of conceiving plants as 

 ^^ modest and guileless ; fair and innocent, that we experi- 

 ence a shock when we learn that less moral kinds exist. Some, 

 indeed are most ingenious deceivers at times fooling even the 

 alert human observer. In this matter they mainly hold two 

 purposes in view, either to entice insects to the flowers as 

 pollen carriers, or to entrap them for animal food. 



From the earliest days of Botany, it has been known to 

 everyone that the round-leaved Sun-dew (Drosera rotundi- 

 folia) catches ants, flies and other small insects. In an ex- 

 cursion made a few years ago to the upper part of this state, 

 with Rev. Robert Cheney, then Rector of Pascoug — a gentle 

 enthusiast, he found a specimen of sundew holdin.g fast by two 

 leaves to a grasshop]:)er. I tried to carry traps and victim 

 home, but mere shaking about in my tin box released the poor 

 hopper, to his joy and my unholy sorrow. Let us see how this 

 plant acts as a trap. Only a few inches in height, it possesses 

 a radical cluster or rosette of curious leaves, the blade of each 

 leaf is circular and about the circumference of an old three- 

 cent silver coin. It is bestudded all over with long hairs, which 

 Darwin aptly called "tentacles " from their resemblance to 



