Sundews 159 
The remarkable feature of the plant consists of a 
large number of appendages fringing these leaf-blades 
and studding the upper surface. These are often 
spoken of as hairs, but though they may have a 
similar origin to hairs, they are too fleshy to make 
such a description of them anything but misleading. 
They areofa crimson tint,and end inenlarged glandular 
tips which excrete a clear, sticky fluid like liquid gum. 
When the leaf is fully expanded, all these tentacles, 
as they may be more fitly termed, bend away from 
the centre of the leaf, and in the sunshine, when each 
gland is surrounded by a globule of fluid, the leaves 
are no doubt mistaken for dewy flowers by small 
insects which alight upon them in the hope of find- 
ing honey or to sip the supposed dew—flying insects 
being thirsty creatures. But there is neither honey 
nor dew to refresh the insect ; only its own death and 
dissolution to fatten the Sundew. The fly touches 
the tentacle-glands with its limbs, and is held by the 
gummy fluid. It seeks to free itself,  . a3 
but only succeeds in further irritating the aN 
glands, which pour out more mucilage and = 
convey the irritation to the leaf generally. A 
Thereupon, all the tentacles begin to bend °*[HyS 7 
over to the poor fly; their sticky tips adhere a “i 
to its wings, its back, its sides, whilst the 
edges of the leaf turn up, and so convert A 
the centre into a shallow basin, in which Pastel le 
lies the fly held securely by a network 
of tentacles. Now there is poured out a digestive fluid 
which actually dissolves the soft parts of the fly, and 
when the process is complete the leaf absorbs this 
extract of fly to the manifest advantage of the plant. 
a fst 
