106 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 
In the Venus’ flytrap, which grows in the sandy regions of 
eastern North Carolina, the mechanism for catching insects is 
still more remarkable. The leaves, as shown in Fig. 95, 
terminate in a hinged portion which is surrounded by a 
fringe of stiff bristles. On the inside of each half of the 
trap grow three short hairs. The trap is so sensitive that 
when these hairs are touched 
it closes with a jerk and very 
generally succeeds in captur- 
ing the fly or other insect 
which has sprung it. The 
imprisoned insect then dies 
and is digested, somewhat as 
in thecase of those caught by 
the sundew, after which the 
trap reopens and is ready for 
fresh captures. 
131. Object of Catching 
Animal Food. — It is easy to 
understand why a good many 
kinds of plants have taken to 
catching insects, or even (in 
the case of some of the large 
tropical pitcher plants) to 
catching birds, killing them, 
digesting them, and absorbing 
FIG. 95.— Venus’ Flytrap. the digested products. Car- 
nivorous, or flesh-eating, 
plants belong usually to one of two classes as regards their 
place of growth: they are bog-plants or air-plants. In either 
case their roots find it difficult to secure much nitrogen- 
containing food, that is, much food out of which proteid 
material can be built up. Animal food, being itself largely 
proteid, is admirably adapted to nourish the growing parts of 
