62 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



they appear to be more capable of repeating their 

 operations than when transplanted here. Mrs. Trent, 

 who cultivated and watched these plants in New 

 Jersey, which is not so far removed from their natural 

 habitat, has stated that "several leaves caught suc- 

 cessively 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 

 capture. Many leaves did not digest even one large 

 insect." The capacity for digestion is not, therefore, 

 unlimited in the Dioncea, more than it is in higher 

 organisms. Apoplexy from over-feeding might even 

 here be a reasonable verdict. 



As to the kind of insects which are captured by 

 this plant we have the record of the contents of four- 

 teen leaves, sent, with their prey, from their native 

 country.! Four of these had caught rather small in- 

 sects, of which three were ants, and the fourth a small 

 fly, but the other ten had caught large insects, of 

 which eight were beetles (two chrysomelas, five elaters, 

 and a curculio), a thick broad spider, and a scolo- 

 pendra. Of the whole there was only one flying insect, 

 or, rather, usually and readily progressing by flight. 

 This hardly seems to harmonise with the statement 

 by Dr. Canby that " as a general thing beetles and 



^ Darwin, p. 312. 



