274 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



" That those insects most easily digested, and most 

 useful to the plant, are principally ants and small flies, 

 which are lured to their graves by the honeyed paths ; 

 and that most of the larger insects which are not at- 

 tracted by sweets, get in by accident, and fall victims 

 to the peculiar mechanical structure of the pitcher. 



" That the only benefit to the plant is from the 

 liquid manure resulting from the putrescent captured 

 insects." 



It seems a strange thing that plants should in 

 this way obtain their own manure, but it must be 

 remembered that in reality manure is one kind of 

 plant -food, and that it matters nothing eventually 

 whether such food is allowed first to become putre- 

 scent, as with the Sarraceiiias, or is strangled alive 

 and then digested, as with the Sundews and Fly-traps. 

 The difference is that the latter kind of carnivorous 

 plants have to be at the trouble of digesting their 

 prey, whereas the former are saved that process. 



Darlingtonia is another kind of " Pitcher -plant," 

 found growing high up the Californian mountains. 

 Its general appearance, with its mottled cap or hood, 

 and the two-lobed leaves dependent from it, resembles 

 the head of a snake, with tongue protruded. The 

 pitcher is usually found crammed with insects, 

 chiefly moths, in a putrescent state. 



Nepenthes is the old-fashioned " Pitcher-plant " of 

 our conservatories, and was so named before the 

 American Sarraceiiias and Darlingtonias were 



