HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 191 



Prof. Lugger, of the state experiment station, was introduced 

 and proceeded to deliver an interesting lecture upon carnivorous 

 plants, illustrating the same by means of large maps or drawings. 



FLESH-CONSUMING PLANTS. 



By Prof. Otto Lugger, St. Anthony Park. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 



When asked by the President and Secretary of your Society 

 to give a lecture upon some subject of interest to horticulturists, 

 I was greatly puzzled what to select. Having been but a short 

 time in this great and prosperous State of Minnesota, I am as yet 

 unacquainted with the insects and plants which are here injuri- 

 ous or beneficial to your loved pets — the fruit and fruit trees. 

 Eecollecting, however, that I occupy a twofold position, that of en- 

 tomologist and botanist, I thought it well to express this by 

 treating of a subject in which both insects and plants are con- 

 cerned. Their relationship in this case is, however, not the 

 usual one, so well or rather too well known to you. ''The lamb 

 has become the tiger,'.' so to speak, and instead of insects eating 

 plants the action is reversed, and plants eat insects. 



A great deal has been written about this subject ever since 

 Darwin started the discussion, and many facts are no doubt 

 familiar to you. Still, as other and more recent observations 

 may be new to most of you, I hope to be able to add my mite in 

 entertaining the Society. The facts here related are mainly 

 based upon those published in Austria by Dr. Kerner. 



Quite a number of plants have peculiar arrangements for 

 catching and retaining small animals, and it has been proven 

 that the majority of plants thus equipped utilize them as one 

 source of food. As insects are most frequently caught, such 

 plants have received the popular name insectivorous plants; car- 

 nivorous i)lants is another name used. Better still is the name 

 flesh- consuming pla7its, as the most important function of some of 

 them consists in the assimilation of organic combinations from 

 the animals captured. But, as will be shown, one term would 

 never suffice to cover all the various phenomena taking place in 

 such plants. 



About five hundred species of plants are now known which 

 catch and utilize animals as food. In this small number the dif- 

 ferent methods employed to catch and use them as food is so 

 great, that we have to arrange these plants in several classes. 



