ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 163 
means clearly understand, but which are none the less calculated to excite 
our wonder and admiration. Viewed from a little distance, a growth of 
Darlingtonias presents a most beautiful and singular appearance, having a 
fanciful resemblance to a number of yellow hooded snakes, with head erect, 
in the act of making the fatal spring. I may here observe incidentally, that 
caput-serpentis would have been an appropriate specific name. The bright 
yellow, and, in some cases, almost orange color of the hoods, also suggests a 
growth of giant orchids; and it is probably, in some degree, to this resem- 
blance to a flower that the leaves are indebted for their faculty of entrapping 
insects, which is the most remarkable feature of the plant. The leaf, which 
is tubular for the whole length, sometimes reaches the height of three feet 
six inches, and has a peculiar twist in its stem, always bending in one direc- 
tion, the course of this twist being marked on the edge of the leaf by a 
winged membrane, increasing in width from the base to its termination at 
the mouth of the pitcher. The apex of the leaf is a large, swollen, reticulated 
hood, sometimes, in well grown plants, as large as a man’s fist, divided in 
front and above the opening into two lanceolate lobes, which are curved 
downwards, and are strongly marked with purplish veins, these colored veins 
being also continued on the inner surface of the tube for about one-third of 
its distance. For more than half its length the interior of the tube is smooth 
and marked with semi-transparent reticulations, but from that distance to 
the base it becomes more opaque; and it is furnished with a closely set series 
of fine, spinous hairs, laid thickly against the walls of the tube, and all 
_ pointing downwards. Examined under the microscope, these hairs present 
no trace of barbs or hooks, but are simply sharp points, hardened and tough- 
ened towards their extremity. 
The whole of this structure appears to be admirably adapted for the singu- 
lar habit of ensnaring insects, which is so wonderful a feature of the economy 
of Darlingtonia and its allies. The insects may easily be led to mistake the 
brightly colored hood for a flower, and wandering into its treacherous recesses, 
find a smooth passage at the top of the tube lighted by the reticulations of 
the leaves, and excreting a slight amount of viscous substance, slightly sweet, 
and of the consistence of honey. Passing along this passage, they at last 
reach the bottom, find on attempting to retrace their steps that escape is im- 
possible, and their wings becoming useless by contact with the viscid dis- 
charge from the walls of the leaf, and the moisture secreted at the bottom of 
the tube, they sink to their death in large numbers, the tube sometimes being 
filled to the depth of from six to seven inches with the remains of insects in 
the various stages of decomposition. 
I do not attempt to speak authoritatively upon the subject, but I am inclined 
to think that no process similar to that of digestion goes on within the plant, 
but that the fluid mass derived from the decay of the imprisoned insects 
descends through the tube into the earth, and is taken up by absorption, 
through the roots, thus acting as a kind of liquid manure. It is true that in 
the dead leaves the hard integuments of insects, such as the elytra of beetles, 
and the bodies of wasps and hornets are to be found undecayed, but this may 
be because the liquid secreted by the plant is not powerful enough to cause 
decomposition of these parts before the plant itself decays. An analysis of 
