certain vegetahle Muscicapce. 1 1 3 



Sarracenia, principally, iF not entirt-Iy, for the purpose of 

 depositing their eggs or larva; in them. We olten see some 

 ot tlie larger species of JShisca and Talanus silting upoa 

 the edges of the openings of the ascidia. of Sarracenia Jiava 

 and Sarracenia purpurea. We soon find that they do not 

 come here, as do the majority of insects, for the purj^ose 

 of sipping the honeved fluid from the ascidial elands. The 

 mother-insect, carefully poising herself upon the brim of 

 the ascidiiun, emits trom her uterus iiito the tube one or 

 more larvae, which immediately betake themselves to the 

 lower part, where meeting with abundance of good food, 

 they rapidly increase in size and in strength. 



I must give to Dr. Smith the credit of having preceded 

 me in making, or at least in recording, an observation nearly 

 allied to the one which I have just detailed. " An insect of 

 \h'i Spliex or Ichneumon kind," as far as he could learn from 

 the descniJtion communicated to him, " in the Botanic Gar- 

 den at Liverpool," " was seen by one oF the gardeners to 

 drag several large flies to the Sarracenia adunca, and, with 

 some difficulty forcmg them under tlieiid or cover of Us leaf, 

 to deposit them in the tubular part, which was half filled 

 with water. All the leaves, on bein<i examined, were found 

 crammed with dead or drowning flies." " The Sarracenia 

 purpurea," adds Dr. Smith, '' is usually observed to be 

 stored with putrefying insects, whose scent is perceptible 

 as we pass the plant in a garden." Tliis I have not ob- 

 served : and perhaps the odour spoken of may l)e that 

 exhaled from the flowers, or genitalia, of the plant. " Pro- 

 bably (the learned English botanist goes on to observe) the 

 air evolved by these dead flies may be beneficial to vegeta- 

 tion, and, as far as the plant is concerned, its curious con- 

 struction may be designed to entrap them, while the wa- 

 ter* is provided to tempt as well as to retain thenj. Tlie 

 Spliex or Ichneumon, an insect of prey, stores ihem up un- 

 questionably for the food of itself or its progeny, probal)ly 

 depositing its eggs in their carcases, as others of tlic same 

 tribe- lay their eggs in various caterpillars, which they some- 

 times bury afterwards in the ground. I'hus a doable 

 purpose is answered; nor is it the least curious circum- 

 stance of the whole, that an European insect should find 

 out an American plant in a hot-house, in order to fulfil 

 that purpose." 



• It is evident, from what has already been said, that it is not the water 

 in, liut the hone \ about and upon, the ascidia, which ten.pis the greater 

 nnniber of insecis to visit these tubes, in tlie different sptcicj of HdrTdtcnia. 

 >ieilhor is it ihc water ihat retains them. 



Vol. 39. No. ifiG. Feb. 1812. H I feel 



