One ristil- 

 lum. 



BECANDUIA. 

 CLASS X. 



TEN STAMINA. 



This Class has Jive Orders. 

 ORDER I. 



FLY-TRAP OF VENUS. This plant, of which monogv 

 there is but this one species, is a native oi the swamps 

 of South Carohna, in America, and exhibits a very 

 remarkable instance of vegetable irritability: the 

 leaves which are at the bottom of the foot-stalk are 

 each divided into two lobes at the extremity, having 

 long teeth on the margin like the antennae of insects, 

 and within armed with six spines, three on each side, 

 and lie spread upon the ground round the stem, and 

 are so irritable, that when a fly happens to light upon 

 a leaf, it immediately folds up and crushes it to 

 death; and this irritability is greatest in proportion to 

 the slightness of the pressure on these lateral spines. 

 It is observed, that upon touching the leaves in cold 

 weather, no sensible contraction ensues 3 in warm 

 weather, and particularly at noon, it is very strong. 



Mr. Knight, lately Mr. Hibbert's gardener at Clap- 

 ham, now a nursery-man in the King's Road, made 

 an experiment of supplying this irritability with fine 



