442 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



he has been engaged in research and study of the floral fauna of the 

 country. He relates a very singular discovery, that of a plant growing 

 in one of the swamps about the great lake of Nicaragua, which may 

 well be denominated a vampire, or a cuttle-fish, from its long tentacles 

 and blood-sucking propensity. 



Mr. Dunstan's attention was drawn to this singular vine by the cries 

 of his dog, and on going to him he found him enveloped in a net-work 

 of rope-like vines, and it was with great difficulty he succeeded in lib- 

 erating the poor animal, whose hairless skin appeared to have been 

 sucked in spots, and its body was covered with blood. In cutting the 

 vine the twigs curled around Mr. Dunstan's hand and clung to it so 

 tenaciously it required considerable force to free the member from its 

 clasp. A very adhesive gum exuded from the plant, of a very powerful 

 and nauseating odor. The power of suction is contained in a number 

 of infinitesimal mouths. When dormant, it appears like a dry, dead 

 vine, but as soon as anything comes in contact with it, it instantly starts 

 into motion, turning and twisting upward in a lifelike manner, exuding 

 the sticky substance and enwrapping the object with celerity. Its 

 voracity is said to be very great — it devouring at one time over ten 

 pounds of meat : that is, absorbing the blood and then throwing off the 

 refuse. 



SUN-DEW PLANT. 



Here we have another wonderful plant with tentacles to clasp the 

 prey, though of quite a different character and on a much smaller scale- 

 The leaf is somewhat the shape of a palm-leaf fan, fringed around the 

 edge and covered over on the upper surface with what are called ten- 

 tacles, because they seem so much like these arms of certain sea ani- 

 mals, with which they capture their food. The leaf is hollowed a little 

 in the center and has drops of a sticky sweet substance to entice in- 

 sects. When one alights on the leaf, instantly the fact is apparent to 

 the tentacles, and they begin to curve over to the center where the fly 

 is caught, and hold it there, while a liquid acid is poured over it, which 

 serves as the gastric juice in our stomachs, to dissolve the food. 

 Another wonderful thing about this leaf is, if the fly alights on the 

 side or anywhere from the hollow center, the tentacle nearest to it 

 bends over and conveys it to the middle of the leaf where its stomach 

 is located, and then all of the numerous arms move toward it and clasp 

 it. After the eatable portions are absorbed, the waste is thrown off. 

 Some have experimented with these plants by giving them different 

 kinds of food. When a few drops of milk are poured on a leaf, it will 

 curve up around the edges, making the depression deeper and more 



