CHAPTER IV. 
PREEDA FORY PLANTS 
THE analogies between plants and animals are many 
and remarkable, and have resulted in the breaking 
down of the arbitrary barriers which of old divided 
animals from plants. The most able biologists can- 
not tell you where the vegetable kingdom terminates 
and the animal world commences. On the border- 
land they seem to commingle; and some low forms of 
life in their earliest stages exhibit the characteristics 
of animals, whilst on arriving at maturity they are 
found to be indubitable plants. We have previously 
alluded to the power of movement possessed by cer- 
tain plants, and we purpose now to give some account 
of plants which feed upon insects, and which catch 
their prey. 
One of the best known—because the earliest known 
—of these plants is an American species, the Venus’s 
Fly-trap (Dionea muscipula), which grows in the 
marshes of North Carolina. It is a low-growing 
plant, only attaining the height of a few inches. The 
leaves are given off direct from the root, each being 
borne upon a long leaf-stalk, which is winged. The 
blade of the leaf is divided into two halves, fringed 
with hairs, and provided along the centre with three 
