NEILGHERRY PLANTS. il 
Vrora Wientrana (Wall.) stoloniferous, slightly A humble plant common on the Neilgherries, 
hairy : leaves cordate-ovate, crenated : sepals lance- flowering at all seasous, In general appearance as 
olate : somewhat acute ; spurshort, very blunt: terus well as in Botanical characters very nearly allied to 
flattish : style attenuated downwards, stigma rostrate, V. odorata but at once, in the growing plant, dis- 
convex but not hooked, neither margined nor papil- tinguished by its being destitute of its sweet scent. 
lose : fruit globose.— W.and A. Prod, page 32. 
VIIIL.—_DROSERCEZ.— Sun Dew Trips. 
This is a small but curious order, the species usually frequenting moist swampy 
ground, but this is not constant as one of the Neilgherry species ( Drosera peltata) is frequent- 
ly found on the dry slopes of the hills, but then only during the rainy season showing that 
this departure from the character of the family is but partial. 
Viewed as a whole, this family may well be called cosmopolite, as they are found in 
nearly all countries and climates. This peculiarity of extensive distribution is not unfre- 
quent among aquatic and marsh plants and is well exemplified in the accompanying species of 
Drosera, which I have gathered on the banks of the Adyar at Madras, and in the most elevat- 
ed marshes of the Neilgherries, fully 8,000 feet above the sea. The Parnassias, on the other 
hand, are more tenacious of a cool climate, not one having hitherto been found in Southern 
India on a lower level than the table land of Mysore. The one here figured I have only met 
with on the Neilgherries, and there only in the swamps and bogs of the higher ranges, as 
about Ootacamund, where it is not unfrequent during the rainy season. 
As in the case of Flacourtianee much difference exists among Botanists as to the 
place Droseraceew should occupy in the natural series and whether Drosera and Parnassia 
should be united in the same order, my own impression is in favour of retaining them as now 
placed, which is certainly. sufficiently in accordance with what is called technical characters, 
though it is not improbable that, when more deeply and skilfully scrutinized with the aid of a 
good microscope, differences of structure might be discovered, demanding the separation of the 
two suborders, of which it is now made up, and their elevation to the rank of distinct orders. 
The Droseras are all remarkable on account of their Fern like vernation, that is, 
the leaves are rolled up in the bud like the mainspring of a watch and gradually unroll as 
they grow, they are further remarkable on account of the glandular hairs with which their 
leaves are furnished, which secretes the viscid juice or dew with which each is tipped, and has 
procured for them the English name of Sundew. In this dew insects which happen to settle 
on them are entangled, while the leaves contract and retain them. One species (Dionea 
muscicapa) familiarly known by the name of Venus’ fly trap, possesses the property of irrita- 
bility in a very remarkable degree. It has two-lobed leaves, the margins of which are set 
round with bristles and a few scattered on the surface. The moment a fly or any other insect 
that may have settled on the leaf touches these middle hairs, the lobes instantly contract on 
the intruder and remain contracted so longas it lives and excites, by its struggles to get 
away, the irritability of the leaf. It appears from the experiments of Mr. Knight of Chelsea, 
that the plant in some way derives nourishment from the insects so caught. 
