214 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



ENUS'S FLY-TRAP. Dioncea muscipula. 

 Class 10, Decandria. Order : Monogynia. 



The Dionsea muscipula, for there is only one 

 species, possesses a most curious apparatus 

 for entrapping" insects. The genus is some- 

 what allied to the Silene or Catchfly, and 

 bears at the extremity of each of its long 

 green leaves, which lie spreading on the ground, a pair of large 

 thick, fleshy lobes, united at their base, and fringed at the mar- 

 gins with a row of long and slender spines. One might fancy 

 that this plant gave the first idea of our rat-trap, and its mode of 

 operating is very nearly the same. No sooner does a fly alight 

 upon the centre between the two lobes, than these suddenly con- 

 verge, the spines meet and clasp one within another, and the poor 

 insects suffers imprisonment and death. The same effect is pro- 

 duced by touching these lobes with a pin, a straw, or any small 

 object ; but this is chiefly observable in fine warm weather ; the 

 contractile power being very weak in winter. Sir J. E. Smith 

 is decidedly of opinion that these decaying carcases are service- 

 able to the plant by administering a peculiar air to it; and 

 M'Knight, a nurseryman, near London, found that a growing 

 specimen of Dionasa, upon whose leaves he laid fine filaments of 

 raw beef, was much more luxuriant in its growth than an indi- 

 vidual not so treated. 



DECEIT. 



What man so wise, what earthly wit so ware, 



As to descry the crafty cunning train, 



By which deceit doth mask in visor fair, 



And cast her colours dyed deep in grain, 



To seem like truth, whose shape she well can feign, 



And fitting gestures to her purpose frame, 



The guiltless man with guile to entertain? 



Spenser. 



Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, 

 And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice ! 



Shakspeare. 



