THE SUNDEWS. 47 



convex surface down to the roots — for there is no 

 distinct footstalk — is covered with short gland-bear- 

 ing tentacles, those on the margin being the longest 

 and reflexed. Bits of meat placed on the glands 

 of some tentacles caused them to be slightly inflected 

 in twenty minutes, but the plant was not in a vigorous 

 state." Two Australian species have also exhibited the 

 same propensities, so that it is probable that all the 

 Sundews, from whatever part of the world they may 

 come, are equally fly-catchers, as well as our own 

 species continue to be, when found flourishing in 

 countries far remote. ^ 



* As, for instance, in Trinidad, where it was observed by the 

 Rev. Charles Kingsley : — " As I scratched and stumbled along 

 the tussocks, ' larding the lean earth as I stalked along,' my 

 kind guide put into my hand, with something of an air of 

 triumph, a little plant, which was — there was no denying it — 

 none other than the long-leaved Sundew, with its clammy- 

 haired paws full of dead flies, just as they would have been in 

 any bog in Devonshire or in Hampshire, in Wales or in 

 Scotland. But how came it here (in Trinidad) .'' And, more, 

 how has it spread, not only over the whole of Northern 

 Europe, Canada, and the United States, but even as far south 

 as Brazil 1 Its being common to North America and Europe 

 is not surprising. It may belong to that comparatively ancient 

 flora which existed when there was a landway between the two 

 continents by way of Greenland, and the bison ranged from 

 Russia to the Rocky r^Iountains. But its presence within the 

 tropics is more probably explained by supposing that it has 

 been carried on the feet or in the crop of birds."'—" At Last," 

 p. 315. 



