Francis E. Lloyd — 178 — Carnivorous Plants 



less on account of their size, to escape before final closure, a view 

 for which F. M. Jones has adduced constructive evidence. Subse- 

 quent movement progressing during >^-i2± hours approximates the 

 lobes more closely and even causes them to become flatter, bringing 

 the inner surfaces into closer apposition. 



If by this reaction an insect, the normal agent of stimulation, 

 has been caught, the body may be more or less compressed between 

 the lobes (17 — 3). The glands then secrete a digestive fluid and 

 in a few days the insect body disintegrates and the products are 

 absorbed. In the course of ten days the lobes open again, and are 

 ready to catch other prey. This may be repeated two or three times 

 before the leaf reaches its complete maturity, when it dies. Of this 

 arrangement Curtis (1834) remarked, "if it were a problem to con- 

 struct a plant with reference to entrapping insects, I cannot con- 

 ceive of a form and organization better adapted to secure that end 

 than are found in Dionaea muscipula." 



" This plant, which Linnaeus called miraculum naturae, appears 

 to have first been discovered by Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North 

 Carohna, and he sent the following account of it to Mr. Collinson 

 in a letter dated at Brunswick, Jan. 24, 1760. After describing the 

 Schrankia, he proceeds:— 'But the great wonder of the vegetable 

 kingdom is a very curious unknown species of sensitive; it is a dwarf 

 plant; the leaves are like a narrow segment of a sphere, consisting 

 of two parts, like the cap of a spring purse, the concave part out- 

 ward, each of which falls back with indented edges (like an iron 

 spring fox trap); upon anything touching the leaves, or falHng be- 

 tween them, they instantly close like a spring trap, and confine any 

 insect or anything that falls between them; it bears a white flower; 

 to this surprising plant I have given the name of Fly Trap Sensitive.' 

 Mr. Collinson, in a memorandum, has recorded the death of Gov- 

 ernor Dobbs in 1765" (Dillwyn 1843). 



It may be inferred from the note by Governor Dobbs, written 



in 1760, but which did not gain publicity till the appearance of the 



Hortus Collinsonianus in 1843, that the Dionaea was well known in 



North Carolina when, in 1763, a Mr. Young, "the Queen's botanist," 



had his attention drawn by some friends to a "pecuhar plant" which 



he subsequently found in great abundance in North Carohna and 



in some parts of South Carohna. Still later Young brought hving 



plants to England, he also introduced them in Kew (Sims 1S04) and 



from these Ellis, a London merchant, drew his description and 



figure sent by him to Linnaeus in 1770 (Young 1783). These were 



published in a small volume entitled. Directions for Bringing over 



Seeds and Plants from the East Indies and other Distant Countries in a 



State of Vegetation, in 1770. Ellis' description was pubHshed in 



Latin at a subsequent date in Nova Acta Soc. Scient. Upsaliensis 



1:98, 1773. Though Ellis' description was based on living material, 



he had just previously received from John Bartram of Philadelphia, 



through Mr. Peter Collinson, an herbarium specimen which furnished 



material which enabled Dr. Solander and himself to determine that 



they had before them a new genus allied to Drosera (Ellis 1770). But 



Ellis, who from the dried material got no hint of the motility of the 



