TURNING THE TABLES.'' 271 



these " pitchers " secrete a honeyed fluid, delightful 

 to the hungry and thirsty insects which have 

 alighted on the attractively-coloured and patterned 

 plant. This they greedily devour, following it up, 

 or rather down, the "pitcher," where it becomes 

 sweeter and sweeter. The hairs and other pro- 

 cesses bend inwards and downwards and offer no 

 resistance to the thoughtless prey, but they abso- 

 lutely bar return, and the deluded flies drop one 

 by one into the horrible dungeon at the bottom of 

 the tube ! Professor Asa Gray, the distinguished 

 American botanist, has thoroughly studied both the 

 structure and habits of these plants, and he thus 

 describes them and their victims : " After turning 

 back the lids of most of the leaves, the flies would 

 enter as before, a few alighting on the honeyed 

 border of the wing, and walking upward, sipping as 

 they went to the mouth, and entering at the cleft 

 of the lower lip ; others would alight on the top of 

 the lid, and then walk under the roof, feeding there ; 

 but most, it seemed to me, preferred to alight just at 

 the commissure of the lips, and either enter the 

 tube immediately there, feeding downward upon the 

 honey pastures, or would linger at the trunk, sipping 

 along the whole edge of the lower lip, and eventually 

 near the cleft. After entering (which they generally 

 do with great caution and circumspection), they 

 begin again to feed, but their foothold for some 

 reason or other, seems insecure, and they occasion- 



