130 TALKS AFIELD. 



main in contact until the insect is digested, 

 — eaten up ! They then open to allure an- 

 other insect. The little hairs, although sen- 

 sitive to the slightest touch, are not influ- 

 enced by wind or rain. 



The Smallest of Flowering Plants. 

 " The green mantle of the standing pool " 

 is usually caused by one of three sorts of 



Fig. 89. Fig. 90. 



plants, either long and slimy threads of zyg- 

 nema and allied algae, or flattened disks of 

 green a quarter of an inch or less across, or 

 minute green grains. The algae we have re- 

 ferred to in our earlier pages, but the disks 

 and the grains are still new to us. 



The little leaf -like disks are complete 

 plants, floating free, and hanging their roots 

 into the water. They are known as the 

 duck-meats, or to botanists as lemnas. In 

 the Northern States there are about six spe- 

 cies, of which the commonest, Lemna minor, 



