DllOSERACEiE. 31. 



case. No doubt the mistake lias arisen from observing insects 

 sticking- to the viscous summits of the leaf-hairs. 



lioiiiid-leaved Sundew, Red Hot. 



French, Hossulis a FeaiUes liotides. German, Eundblattriyer Sonnenthau. 



In the most unprouiisiug situations, amidst boggy swamps and dreary morass, there 

 ■we find tliis pretty plant sparkling beneath the sunlight, every leaf appearing as though 

 fringed with diamonds. The little inflexed red hairs at the margin of a leaf each exude 

 a drop of moisture, which gives rise to the common English name. This fluid is somewhat 

 sticky, and unwai'y insects lighting on the plant are unable to leave it, and the leaves 

 are observed to contract or shrink slightly when touched, so that it appears as though 

 they -would more closely entrap the unlucky ])risoijer. The contractile nature of the 

 leaves of the Drosei'a is confirmed by a number of observers ; and Dr. Withering, in 

 his " Botany," gives the details pi numerous ex[)eriments on the subject. Probably 

 the sensitive condition of the plant is not so observable in our British sjjecies as in 

 those of warmer climates ; but certain it is that numbers of dead insects are constantly 

 found sticking to the leaves, and that on warm sunny days, on touching the surface 

 with a pin or any other object, the leaves niay be seen to contract, and the little red 

 bristles to close I'ound in a very remarkable manner. Belonging as the Drosera does 

 to a very irritable family of })lauts, numbering among them the celebi-aletl Venus' 

 Flytrap (Dioniea rauscipula), we can scarcely be unprepared for this peculiar character- 

 istic in our British species. To find this beautiful plant in its native morass requires 

 something more than ordinary care ; it is generally so entangled with moss and other 

 little bog plants that it may easily escape undiscovered ; when found, however, it well 

 repays an attentive observer, and if carefully removed in a mass and placed in a saucer 

 or plate well supjjlied with moisture and covered with a glass, we have a pleasant 

 botanical study and a beautiful object for days or weeks before us ; — 



" By the lone fountain's secret bed, 

 Where human footsteps rarely tread ; 

 Mid the wild moor or silent glen. 

 The Sundew blooms unseen by men." 



The Sundew is acrid and caustic, and is said to burn away corns and warts ; it was 

 valued of yore as a cosmetic, and was used to curdle milk in the same way as rennet. In 

 the days of Gerarde it was commonly used as a counteiirritant. He says : " The leaves 

 being stamped with salt, do exulcerate and I'aise blisters to what part of the body soever 

 they be ajiplied." He goes on to say : " The later physicians have thought this herbe 

 - to be a rare and singular remedy for all those that be iu a cousum|)tiou of the lungs, 

 and especially the distilled water thereof; for as the herb doth keep and hold fast the 

 moisture and dew, and so fast that the extreme drying heat of the sun cannot consume 

 and waste away the same, so likewise men thought that herewith the natural and 

 radical humidity iu men's bodies is preserved and cherished. But the u.se thereof doth 

 otherwise teach, and I'eason sheweth the contrary; for seeing it is an extreme biting 

 herb, and that the distilled water is not altogether without this biting quality, it cannot 

 be t;ikeu with safety; for it hath also been observed that they have sooner perished 

 that used the distilled water thereof than those that abstained from it and have followed 

 the riglit and ordinary course of diet." The Sundew is the plant of which Burton says, 

 in his " Anatomic of Melanclioly," that " Beruardus Perrottus prefers his he rha soils 

 before all the rest (of herbs) in this disease (melancholy), and will admit of no herb 



