1819.] Scientific Intelligence. 149 
suck it, which they esteem a specific remedy in fever, and seem 
to think that it has a miraculous operation.” 
Pococke mentions this tree again; and in his 89th plate gives: 
a tolerable, but not precisely botanical figure of it. This figure 
is cited by Wildenow as a representation of the Liquidambar 
imberbe, ox oriental liquidambar. 
Dr. Sibthorp in his visit to Cyprus was anxious to ascertain 
the tree mentioned by Pococke. He found it still growing, and 
still venerated by the natives, though not quite so much soasit had 
been in the time of Pococke. It was the liquidambar styraciflua, 
or-the North American species. No other tree of this species 
was known in the island of Cyprus, nor probably im the Levant. 
It remains, therefore, as a problem difficult of solution to account. 
for the first planting of this tree in the island of Cyprus.—(Lin- 
nean Transactions, xii. 1.) 
XI. Power of the Sarracenia Adunca to entrap Insects. By Dr. 
James M‘Bride. 
In the 12th volume of the Linnean Transactions, p. 48, there 
is acurious communication from Dr. Macbride, of South Carolina, 
on the property which the leaves of the Sarracenia flava and 
adunca have of entrapping insects. These plants grow abun- 
dantly in the flat country of South Carolina. The leaves are 
tubular, and several feet in length. In the months of May, 
June, or July, when these leaves perform their extraordinary 
functions in the greatest perfection, if some of them be removed 
to a house and fixed in an erect position, it will soon be per- 
ceived that flies are attracted by them. These msects imme- 
diately approach the fauces of the leaves, and leaning over their 
edges, appear to sip with eagerness something from their 
internal surfaces. In this position they linger; but at length 
allured, as it would seem, by the pleasure of taste, they enter the 
tubes. ‘The fly, which has thus changed its situation, will be 
seen to stand unsteadily ; it totters for a few seconds, slips, and 
falls to the bottom of the tube, where it is either drowned, or 
attempts in vain to ascend against the points of the hairs. The 
fly seldom takes wing inits fall and escapes. But this sometimes 
happens, especially where the hood has been removed to assist 
observation. Ina house much infested with flies, this entrap- 
ment goes on so rapidly that a tube is filled in a few hours, and 
it becomes necessary to add water, the natural quantity being 
insufficient to drown the imprisoned insects. 
The cause which attracts flies is evidently a sweet viscid sub- 
stance, resembling honey, secreted by, or exuding from, the 
_ internal surface of the tube. On splitting a leaf, it may readily 
be discovered in front, just below the margin, and in greatest 
quantity at the termination of the ala ventralis, From the margin 
where it commences, it does not extend lower than one-fourth 
of aninch. During the vernal and summer months, it is very 
