232 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



It has little fleshy round heart-shaped leaves of the most delicate 

 green, and hristling with scarlet spines, each one of which is tipped 

 with a tiny drop of dew. A thousand charming legends might be 

 invented about these little jewels — diamonds — tears— what you 

 please to name them ; but there is a dark rumour about the plant 

 which says this fair siren is a very Jezebel, a ghoul, an arch deceiver, 

 who lures poor unsuspecting flies to their destruction with these 

 jewelled tears. It not only holds them fast, but apparently gobbles 

 them up. Some aphides we placed on a leaf disappeared bodily ; 

 the spiny fingers were closed, but we could find no trace of the hapless 

 victims. A small fly it held tight (we had killed it first), and a 

 few days afterwards its body was a shapeless mass in the clasp of the 

 leaf, the wings having vanished. Now the little red spines are 

 opening again, perhaps to throw it off, as having served its purpose 

 of nourishing the plant. This is certainly a most curious little 

 plant, and would make an interesting study to a close observer. 

 Perhaps some of your readers could tell how it feeds ? Is the dew- 

 drop some kind of acid which dissolves parts of the body of the 

 trapped insect suited to its nourishment ? Or are the spines so 

 many tubes which have the power of absorbing all the moisture 

 from the animals caught in their toils ? However this may be, it is 

 an exceedingly fair plant, shading into the reds, greys, and greens 

 of the sphagnum moss, with a brilliancy hardly to be equalled. 



But once more to return to our tale. For starting an indoor 

 marsh like the one proposed, a soup-plate or common milk-pan 

 would make an excellent foundation, or if it should be found 

 necessary to buy anything expressly for it, a zinc pan fitted with a 

 tap, to let off any surplus water in case of its being found needful, 

 might be an improvement ; though hitherto we have never found 

 the soil in the milk-pan become sour or unpleasant in any way. 

 This pan could, when planted, be dropped into a round bucket, 

 which would make all neat, as far as the outside is concerned. 



In planting we now always half fill the pans with charcoal in 

 lumps and dust, a little of which we mix with the soil. This latter 

 is carefully looked over for worms, etc., and placed upon the char- 

 coal, so as to fill the pan to the height desired, always allowing for 

 a slight rise of ground consequent upon planting little turfs, etc. ; 

 all this is now scalded with a kettleful of really boiling water, 

 which will, of course, settle all question as to the possibility of any 

 living creatures lurking amongst the earth. But as it is a well- 

 known fact that the eggs of some insects can withstand great heat, 

 we put a bell-glass over the soil and place it in the sun to steam, in 

 the hopes of indvicing any possible remaining eggs to hatch. After 

 a few hours this water is all poured oft' and the earth scalded again, 

 which has the advantage of doing away with anything that might 

 otherwise prove offensive. When the soil lias become sufiiciently 

 cool, the plants, etc., can be gently sunk in their places in the 

 slime and the glass replaced. If the soil in some parts of the basin 

 were raised, so as to accommodate plants which like a moist climate, 

 though they will not thrive if actually touching the water, an 

 endless variety of plants, mosses, and lichens^ to say nothing of 



