356 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



than the leaves of the last species, and are not half so broad as they 

 are long. The plant flowers at the same time as the latter, but is 

 not nearly so common. 



The third species — the Great Englisli Sundew {D. anglica) — is 

 still rarer. Its leaves are still longer and narrower, being sometimes 

 an inch or more in length, and more erect ; and the flower-stalk 

 sometimes attains a length of eight inches. 



The carnivorous habits of these plants are very similar to 

 those of the Butterworts, but the movements connected with the 

 capture of the prey are more marked in the red filaments which 

 cover the upper surface of the leaves than in the leaves themselves. 

 Those filaments which are situated on the margin of the leaf are 

 longest, and spread outwards, while the others are erect and 

 decrease in length from the edge towards the middle. 



Each filament is swollen at its extremity, and supports an 

 enticing globule of glistening fluid which it secretes, for the enlarged 

 extremity is really a minute gland. The fluid, though quite clear, 

 is so viscid that it can be drawn out into threads, and it serves a 

 purpose similar to that of the sticky globules on the spiral thread 

 of a spider's web. 



If some grains of sand or other inorganic material be sprinkled 

 on the leaf, the sticky secretion of the glands is appreciably increased, 

 and at the same time assumes an acid character ; but it contains 

 no digestive ferment, nor do the filaments change their position 

 to any considerable extent. When, however, a small insect aUghts 

 on the leaf, attracted by the glistening drops which are probably 

 mistaken for nectar, the secretion not only increases and becomes 

 acid, but a digestive ferment is produced, and the little creature 

 is soon besmeared with the fluid, its condition becoming more and 

 more hopeless through its struggles, till at last further movements 

 are impossible and it dies of suffocation. 



A few minutes later the filaments of the leaf immediately around 

 the insect begin to bend towards it, and others a little fartlier ofl 

 soon partake in the movement, which may finally extend more or 

 less to all the filaments of the leaf, and thus a large number of glands 

 are brought in contact with the prey. The process of digestion 

 now goes on, and, in a day or two, all the digestible portions of the 

 insect are dissolved and absorbed, and the filaments that were 

 concerned in the work have resumed their original position, leaving 

 the indigestible portions to dry and to be eventually blown 

 away. 



