FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



Of the other plant he writes : " It is a perplexing- 

 matter to reconcile our feelings to the rigour and our 

 reason to the necessity of some plants being made 

 the instrument of destruction to the insect world. 

 Of British plants we have only a few so constructed, 

 which, having clammy joints and calices, entangle 

 them to death. The sundew (Drosera) destroys in a 

 different manner, yet kills them without torture. 

 But we have one plant in our gardens, a native of 

 North America, than which none can be more cruelly 

 destructive of animal life {Apocynuin androscBini- 

 folium), which is generally conducive to the death ot 

 every fly that settles upon it. Allured by the honey 

 on the nectary of the expanded blossom, the instant 

 the trunk is protruded to feed on it the filaments 

 close, and, catching the poor fly by the extremity of 

 its proboscis, detain the poor prisoner writhing in 

 protracted struggles till released by death — a death 

 apparently occasioned by exhaustion alone ; the 

 filaments then relax and the body falls to the 

 ground. The plant will at times be dusky from the 

 numbers of imprisoned wretches. This elastic action 

 of the filaments may be conducive to the fertilising 

 of the seed by scattering the pollen from the anthers, 

 as is the case with the berberry ; but we are not 

 sensible that the destruction of the creatures which 

 excite the action is in any way essential to the 

 wants or perfection of the plant, and our ignorance 



