210 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
The unpleasant Toothwort, which we shall meet again 
among the parasites, is also an insect-catcher, not being 
content with the nourishment of which it robs the tree- 
roots selected as its host. Nine-tenths of its life is 
underground, for it only comes up to flower, and under- 
ground it lays its traps. Its thick leaves are doubly 
folded, and up this fold wandering insects crawl, to be 
enmeshed in sticky threads of protoplasm, which suck 
out their life and all their useful juices. 
The Butterwort is a plant mentioned earlier as an ally 
of the Speedwells, and is a very prominent ornament 
‘of our mountains, recognised at once by its flat rosette 
of thick yellowish leaves, lying close to the earth, and by 
its beautiful flower, in colour and shape resembling a 
large violet. Our present interest lies with the leaves, 
and if you look at and feel them you will notice that 
they are covered with a sticky juice. If an insect alights 
on the leaf it is entangled in this juice for a moment, 
and thereupon all the glands on the top pour out both 
gum and also digestive fluid. At the same time the edge 
of the leaf begins slowly to rise and curl, either enfolding 
the visitor, or pushing him down to the central trough 
of the leaf, where he will be at the mercy of the full 
stream produced by the general activity. You will see 
at once that we have reached a more advanced stage, and 
the plant is taking an active, and not merely a passive, 
interest in the pursuit. 
The last example we may consider is the Sundew, 
which you may find in marshes in many places, but 
especially in the bogs that one meets upon the lower 
slopes of our mountains. Here, again, we have a rosette 
of leaves, but these are not egg-shaped and sessile like 
the Butterwort’s. They have a longish stalk, at the end 
