PITCHER PLANTS. 121 



Our Nortliern pitcher plant is less actively 

 insectivorous than some of the Southern 

 species, and especially less than the Sarrace- 

 nia variolaris, which has been minutely 

 studied. In this species a hood or cover 

 projects over the mouth of the pitcher, ex- 

 cluding all rain. The pitcher secretes a 

 viscid liquid, which speedily dispatches all un- 

 fortunate insects which fall into it. About 

 the mouth of the pitcher is a secretion of a 

 sugar-like substance, which attracts numer- 

 ous flies and smaller insects. This secretion 

 extends even down the outside of the pitcher 

 to the ground, presenting a honey-baited 

 pathway, which arrests all wandering insects, 

 especially ants, and allures them upward to 

 the fatal opening. Once upon the rim of 

 the pitcher they gorge themselves with the 

 delectable honey, unwarily getting a little 

 farther down on the inside, until finally they 

 slip on the glossy surface and soon find 

 themselves inextricably entangled among 

 the bristling deflexed hairs. All attempts 

 to escape are futile, and they soon come in 

 contact with the viscid liquid, from which 

 they are never rescued. So perfect is this 

 fly trap that a fly or other insect never es- 

 capes from it. It is said that the plants are 



