268 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



all the substances the leaf requires. Then the leaf 

 slowly opens and expands, the hairs are erect and 

 on duty, and the trap is ready for another victim. 



Darwin, in his Insectivorous Plants^ narrates in his 

 quiet but effective manner the numerous experiments 

 made upon all kinds of flesh-eating plants, and with 

 the Sundews and Venus' Fly-trap in particular, and 

 to that notable book I refer all readers who now hear 

 for the first time of plants that have turned the tables 

 on their enemies, and devour them, just as the most 

 savage races of mankind do their prisoners of war. 



Moreover, a lady naturalist, Mrs. Mary Treat of 

 New Jersey, found that these insectivorous plants 

 suffered from indigestion when they attempted to 

 consume too many flies at a sitting, and that some 

 even died from over-eating ! Her remarks are as 

 follows : " Several leaves caught successively three 

 insects each, but most of them were not able to 

 digest the third fly, but died in the attempt. Five 

 leaves, however, digested each three flies, and closed 

 over the fourth, but died soon after the fourth cap- 

 ture !" 



Dr. Burdon Sanderson has demonstrated that the 

 contraction and contractibility in the tissues of the 

 leaves of Venus' Fly-trap are identical in their cha- 

 racter with those which take place when mitsciilar 

 contraction occurs in the muscles of mammalia. 

 Moreover, he has further shown there is a corre- 

 spondence between the electric phenomena which 



