SILENE VIRGINICA. VIRGINIAN CATCHFLY. 1 9 



seen at all. Dr. John M. Coulter reports it in Indiana ; Prof. 

 Aughey mentions it as growing in Nebraska ; and Mr. G. D. 

 Butler has found it in Arkansas, which is probably its extreme 

 southwesterly limit. It is not, however, recorded in any Kansas 

 collections, nor have we ever heard of its being found in Illinois 

 or Missouri. It is very evident, from this statement of geo- 

 graphical distribution, that Virginia can lay but small claim to 

 the special honor of being considered the home par excellence of 

 the Silcne Virginica. 



The poets and floral emblematists have endeavored to asso- 

 ciate the idea of remorseless fate with the Catchfly, in conse- 

 quence, probably, of the insect-trapping propensities of these 

 plants. The unfortunate insect thus caught would certainly 

 have good cause to exclaim with its Shakespearian companion 

 in misfortune : — 



" Yet who could have suspected an ambush 

 Where I was taken ? . . . . 

 All unavoidable is the doom of destiny." 



The idea of remorseless cruelty, however, is much more appli- 

 cable here than that of remorseless fate ; and the elder Dr. 

 Darwin seems to have held the same view, if we may judge 

 from the well-known and often-quoted lines in his " Botanical 

 Garden " : — 



" The fell Silcne and her sisters fair, 

 Skilled in destruction, spread the viscous snare." 



No fitter type of cruelty certainly could be found than a plant 

 which exercises its " skill in destruction," for the mere pleasure 

 of killing ; and this does indeed seem to be the case with the 

 Catchfly, for it is not proved (although it has been suspected) 

 that the plant needs the insects which it entraps for food, as 

 does the Di^osera and the other plants known specially as 

 insectivorous j^lants. All this, however, is only a chapter in the 

 family history of the genus, and has but little direct application 



