350 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vil. 



In the course of my inquiries I have been led to look into the 

 early history of the whole subject, which I find to be so little 

 known and so interestincr that I have thought that a sketch of 

 it, up to the date of Mr. Darwin's investigations, might prove 

 acceptable to the members of this Association. In drawing it up, 

 I have been obliged to limit myself to the most important plants; 

 and with regard to such of these as Mr. Darwin has studied, I 

 leave it to him to announce the discoveries which, with his usual 

 frankness, he has communicated to me and to other friends ; 

 whilst witli regard to those which I have myself studied, Sar- 

 racenia and Nepenthes, I shall briefly detail such of my observa- 

 tions and experiments as seem to be the most suggestive. 



Dloiuca. — About 1768 Ellis, a well-known English naturalist, 

 sent to Linoaeus a drawing of a plant, to which he gave the 

 poetical name of Dionaea. " In the year 1765," he writes, "our 

 lute worthy friend, Mr. Peter Collinson, sent me a dried speci 

 men of this curious plant, which he had received from Mr. John 

 Bartram, of Philadelphia, botanist to the late King." Ellis 

 flowered the plant in his chambers, having obtained living speci- 

 mens from America. I will read the account which he gave of 

 it to Linnaeus, and which moved the great naturalist to declare 

 that, though he had seen and examined no small number of plants, 

 he had never met with so wonderful a phenomenon : — 



" The plant, Ellis says, shows that Nature may have some 

 views towards its nourishment, in forming the upper joint of its 

 leaf like a machine to catch food ; upon the middle of this lies 

 the bait for the unhappy insect that becomes its prey. Many 

 minute red glands that cover its surface, and which perhaps dis 

 charge sweet liquor, tempt the animal to taste them ; and the 

 instant these tender parts are irritated by its feel, the two lobes 

 rise up, grasp it fast, lock the rows of spines together, and 

 squeeze it to death. And further, lest the strong efibrts for life 

 in the creature just taken should serve to disengage it, three 

 small erect spines are fixed near the middle of each lobe, fimong 

 the glands, that effectually put an end to all its struggles. Nor 

 do the lobes ever open again, while the dead animal continues 

 there. But it is nevertheless certain that the plant cannot dis- 

 tinguish an animal from a vegetable or mineral r-ubstance ; for if 

 we introduce a straw or pin between the lobes, it will grasp it 

 fully as fast as if it was an insect." 



This account, which in its way is scarcely less horrible tlian 



