CHAPTER III 



OTHER INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS — DIFFICULTIES AND 

 CRITICISMS 



Fly -Traps [Dioncea and Aldrovandd) — Sundews and Birdlvne 

 Traps — Bntferworts — Stmdetvs proper {Drosera) — Details, 

 Functional and Structural — Digestion — Movements — Absorp- 

 tion — Utility — Other Insectivorous Plants — Legends — Diffi- 

 culties — Further Difficulties and Criticisms — Direction of 

 further Investigation ; Possible Compromise. 



Fly-Traps (Dionaea). — Besides those insectivorous plants 

 which we have aheady studied under the general title of 

 " pitchers," there are others more active in insect-catching, 

 which we may call " fly-traps." Of these the most famous, 

 cynically nicknamed " \''enus's Fly-Trap " {Dio?icEa iniisci- 

 pttla), grows in damp places in the east of North America, 

 occurring in very local distribution in North and South 

 Carolina, especially near the town of Wilmington. It 

 was the first of the insectivorous plants to attract atten- 

 tion, for in 1768 Ellis, a London merchant, but a shrewd 

 naturalist withal, who discerned the animal nature of coral, 

 sent a description of the plant to Linnasus, who in his 

 enthusiasm called it '-'• niiraciihim iiahircp.'''' But he sup- 

 posed that the insects were captured accidentally, and 

 subsequently allowed to escape. 



The Venus Fly-Trap, like its allies the Sundews, grows 

 on the wet moorland. A circle of more or less prostrate 



