128 PLANTS WITH TRAPS AND PITFALLS TO ENSNARE ANIMALS, 
leaf is thin, translucent, and pale-green or whitish; and these clear translucent 
patches, framed by purple or green ribs, look as if they were little windows, 
especially when seen from within the utriele. The mixture of green, red, and white 
gives the upper parts of the leaves such a gay appearance that, from a distance, they 
might be mistaken for flowers. 
Insects are doubtless attracted by these bright colours, and both round the 
orifice, and on the inner surface of the cupola, they find exudations of honey which 
they suck or lick up with avidity. In Sarracenia variolaris, honey is to be seen 
besides, on the edge of a broad free border which is decurrent along the utricle, and 
extends from the ground to the orifice. This border forms a favourite path for 
wingless insects, especially ants, which are particularly eager in their quest for 
honey. For them it is a sure way to destruction, for when they, gradually 
following the honey-baited pathway, arrive at the orifice to the utricle and pass 
through it, they inevitably get upon the smooth decurved points of the epidermal 
cells, constructed just like those in Sarracenia pwrpwrea, and then, unable to stop 
themselves, slip down to the bottom of the pitcher. When small winged insects 
alight from flying and fall down the slide into the interior, they make use of their 
wings in the hope of saving themselves, but they never succeed in finding the 
aperture by which they entered, as it slants downwards and is situated in shadow. 
They invariably try to escape through the cupola, mistaking the thin portions, ' 
through which the light penetrates into the interior, for gaps permitting egress. 
But just as flies in rooms dash against the windows hoping to pass through them 
into the open air, so the small insects in the utricles of Sarracenia variolaris and 
Darlingtonia Californica knock against these windowed cupolas, in their desire 
to save themselves by flying through. They always fall down again to the bottom 
of the utricle as though into a cistern. If they are immersed in the liquid there 
secreted, or only in partial contact with it, they are stupefied, but not immediately 
killed. They often live incarcerated for two days, and it would therefore be 
erroneous to suppose that the fluid in the pitchers acts on the prey as a deadly 
poison. But it assists the decay and dissolution of the captives as they die of 
starvation and suffocation, and, as in the case of the utricle-plants previously 
deseribed, a brown liquor of very unpleasant odour is produced, and there is a 
residue of solid pieces of skeleton difficult to decompose, such as the wing-cases, 
claws, and thoraces of various beetles, lice, ants, and other small insects which have 
shared the same unlucky fate. 
The number of animals captured is very considerable. The pitchers of 
Sarracenia variolaris, which attain to a length of 30 em., are usually found, when 
growing in their natural habitat, filled to a height of from 8 to 10 em. with animal 
remains, and even a heap 15 em. high has been observed. We must here remark 
that in the ascidia of Sarracenia variolaris, wingless insects, which creep about the 
earth, are found to predominate, whilst in Darlingtonia, on the contrary, most of 
the insects are winged. The cause of this is easily understood. The former plant 
has honey exuding on the flap or ridge running down from the orifice to the 
