128 TALKS AFIELD. 



victim. If a little stone should drop on tlie 

 leaf tlie tentacles are summoned in more 

 slowly than before, and finding out their 

 mistake they return to their normal position 

 much more rapidly. A tentacle will often 

 begin to move in ten seconds after it is 

 touched, and in from one hour to four hours 

 it will be completely deflexed. Mr. Darwin 

 fed beef to plants of sundew and they ac- 

 cepted it as readily as an insect. Although 

 the pressure of a gnat's foot will cause a 

 tentacle to move, a drop of rain will not 

 affect it! 



The Venus' fly-trap, or dionoea, of North 

 Carolina, is a botanical ally of the interest- 

 ing sundew , but its contrivance for captur- 

 ing insects is very different. The leaves are 

 borne at the base of the flower-stalk, as in 

 the sundew. Fig. 88 represents three of the 

 leaves. The trap portion has two valves or 

 jaws, about the edge of which are stiff and 

 insensitive hairs or bristles. The trap se- 

 cretes no viscid material to hold the insect. 

 Two or three hairs on the inner faces of these 

 jaws are highly sensitive, and the slightest 

 touch will cause the trap to fly together, the 

 bristles interlocking like the teeth of a bear- 

 trap. The unwary insect is caught before 



