'' TURNING THE TABLES.'' 259 



Such plants have been called '' insectivorous " 

 and also " carnivorous." Darwin has demonstrated 

 that those fed with animal food produced more 

 flowers and seeds than those left alone. There can 

 be no doubt, therefore, that this habit is a highly- 

 specialised one, and that it has been acquired, for it 

 is practised in varying degrees — from occasional 

 indulgence to absolute necessity. And what is very 

 striking is the manner with which fly-catching and 

 digesting has been adopted by plants of various 

 orders, in several ways, all over the world. Some 

 of these set regular traps, like the Sundews, Venus' 

 Fly-catcher, etc. ; others, like our Butterworts, grease 

 their leaves and curl up their edges. Many kinds in 

 America grow specialised pitcher-shaped leaves, and 

 smear their upper surfaces with a honey-like secre- 

 tion, whose sweetness is intensified within, alluring 

 the unsuspecting flies on until they cannot return. 

 They then accumulate in a seething, filthy, half-dead, 

 half-living mass, within the interior of this diabolically 

 contrived trap — a mere manure-heap for the benefit 

 of the plant, whose seeds will be all the richer in 

 albumen from the transformation of the organic 

 matter of the insects by the process of vegetable 

 digestion or assimilation. 



When members of the same genus of plants 

 are found in various parts of the world practising 

 the same habits, with such a remarkably similar 

 mechanism, there is only one explanation I know of 



