UMantstooD anD /llbotlon 139 



should be well washed all over now and then, to 

 admit of their getting their proper amount of food 

 from the air. 



Certain classes of plants use a portion of animal 

 food. We are accustomed to the idea of animals 

 eating plants, but when we see the tables turned, and 

 plants eating animals, that is queer indeed ! The 

 animal food of the " flesh-eating " or carnivorous 

 plants is really the juice sucked from the bodies of 

 insects. 



The sun-dew, common in marshes, expands a 

 little sticky, pink-green shirt-button of a leaf, on 

 which are numerous stiff hairs. The clear drops of 

 gum attract insects to the leaf, and they are held by 

 the feet or wings. Their struggles cause the leaf to 

 fold together, when the hairs pierce the body of the 

 insect and drink up the juices. When only a dry 

 husk remains the leaf opens and the wind shakes 

 the shell away. 



The pitcher-plant invites insects by a honey-like 

 secretion. They fall into the liquid stored in the 

 pitcher and are there drowned, because, owing to nu- 

 merous downward-pointing hairs in the throat of the 

 pitcher, they cannot climb back. Easy is the de- 

 scent into evil ! The acrid liquor in the pitcher 

 digests the bodies of the insects, turning them 

 into plant-food. Flies, ants, gnats, little beetles are 



