278 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



by a hood ; that the glands are largest, cover the 

 largest surface, and are least protected at the bottom 

 and the lower third of the inner surface ; that these 

 glands secrete a digestive fluid, with an acid reaction ; 

 that insects are commonly found at the bottom of 

 the pitchers, where they become disintegrated ; that 

 they are probably digested by the excreted fluid, 

 and their soluble nitrogenous matter absorbed and 

 assimilated for the advantage of the plant. . . . 

 From all this, if the summary is a fair one, we are 

 naturally led to conclude that the pitchers of Pitcher- 

 plants are traps to catch animals, as well as stomachs 

 to digest them." 



Another well-known but much smaller Pitcher- 

 plant, often to be seen in greenhouses, is Cephalotiis, 

 from Australia. It is a small plant, with rosette- 

 clustered leaves, from which the stalks of the pretty 

 little pitcher radiate. The general mechanical struc- 

 ture of the latter is wonderfully like that of Nepenthes^ 

 and the pitchers are provided with lids, probably for 

 the same reason. Insects are caught and digested 

 in pretty much the same way. 



It is hardly necessary to point out that these 

 insectivorous habits must have all been acquired, and 

 that the different stages of the acquisition may still 

 be seen in a variety of plants. The most interesting 

 fact in the habit, perhaps, is how plants have 

 approached it from different directions, so to speak, 

 and performed it by different mechanical contrivances. 



