352 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Tol. vll. 



tiie two sides suddenly collapse and enclose tlie prey, with a force 

 surpassing an insect's efforts to escape. The fringe of hairs on 

 the opposite sides of a leaf interlace, like the fingers of two 

 hands clasped together. The sensitiveness resides only in these 

 hair-like processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched or 

 pressed in any other part without sensible effects. The litth 

 prisoner is not crushed and suddenl}'' destroyed, as is sometimes 

 supposed, for I have often liberated captive flies and spiders, 

 which sped away as fast as fear or joy could carry them. At 

 other times I have found them enveloped in a fluid of a muci- 

 laginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects 

 being more or less consumed in it." 



To Ellis belongs the credit of divining the purpose of the 

 capture of insects by the Dionaea. But Curtis made out the 

 details of the mechanism, by ascertaining the seat of the sensi- 

 tiveness in the leaves; and he also pointed out that the secretion 

 was not a lure exuded before the capture, but a true digestive 

 fl.uid poured out, like our own gastric juice after the ingestion 

 of food. 



For another generation the history of this wonderful plant 

 stood still; but in 18G8 an American botanist, Mr. Canby, who 

 is happily still engaged in botanical research — while staying in 

 the Dionoea district, studied the habits of the plant pretty care- 

 fully, especially the points which Dr. Curtis had made out. His 

 first idea was that " the leaf had the power of dissolving animal 

 matter, which was then allowed to flow along the somewhat 

 trough-like petiole to the root, thus furnishing the plant with 

 highly nitrogenous food." By feeding the leaves with small 

 pieces of beef, he found, however, that these were completely 

 dissolved and absorbed ; the leaf opening again with a dry sur- 

 face, and ready for another meal, though with an appetite some- 

 what jaded. He found that cheese disagreed horribly with the 

 leaves, turning them black, and finally killing them. Finally, 

 he details the useless struggles of a Curculio to escape, as 

 thoroughly establishing the fact that the fiuid already mentioned 

 is actually secreted, and is not the result of the decomposition 

 of the substance which the leaf has seized. The Curculio beins: 

 of a resolute nature, attempted to eat his way out, — "when 

 discovered he was still alive, and had made a small hole through 

 the side of the leaf, but was evidently becoming very weak. On 

 opening the leaf, the fluid was found in considerable quantity 



