

86 



unhappy insect sinks under the exhaustion produced by the waste 

 of its fatty tissue."* 



In South America there is a family of ants (Cnjptocerus) which 

 are so frequently attacked by a Cordiceps that they are called by the 

 natives of Peru ' ' Tamshi-mama, that is mother of Tamshi, because 

 the ant is supposed at its death to take root in the ground, and to 

 grow upwards into the liana, Tamshi, \vhich is in reality the tough 

 air root of an epiphytal Carludovica.'" The fungus, protruding from 

 the earth, "looks not unlike a slender truncheon of liana, and 

 might be mistaken for such, on a superficial inspection." t 



Ascending to the higher forms of vegetable growth we come to 

 some, which are genuine traps, in which the prisoners ap retained 

 until death puts an end to their struggles. 



There can be little doubt that the plants themselves derive direct 

 benefit from the consumption of the captured insect, feasting on the 

 decaying animal matter, and imbibing the gases which arise from its 

 corruption, and that they deserve the name of predatory or carni- 

 vorous, as truly as do the eagles and lions of the animal kingdom. 

 In point of destructive power and of ingenuity in the method em- 

 ployed, a plant produced in the sandy bogs of Carolina in the 

 United States, stands at the head of the list ; this is the Venus's Fly 

 trap (Dionoea muscipida), and most admirably'- does it answer to its 

 name. It is a lowly plant with a single naked flower stalk, which 

 springs from a rosette of leaves spreading round the central stem. 

 The upper half of each leaf is divided into two equal parts by a 

 strong mid-rib. The margins are fringed with a row of stout spiny 

 bristles, so that it may be likened to two upper eyelids joined at 

 their bases. The leaf is slightly hollow on either side of the mid-rib, 

 the upper surface is dotted with minute reddish glands, and each, 

 hollow portion is furnished with three slender bristles. The sensi- 

 tiveness of the leaf chiefly resides in these bristles. If an insect 

 alights on the leaf, and touches one or more of them, the sides sud- 

 denly close with a force so great as to imprison the little creature. 

 In vam does the captive struggle to escape ; the greater are its 

 eflForts to disengage itself, the more firmly is it hugged by the en- 

 closing leaves ; directly, however, it ceases to make a movement, 

 the leaves relax their hold, only however to recover their former 

 position should the struggle recommence. A bystander might 

 imagine the leaf to have some kind of reasoning power, so exactly 

 coincident are its movements with those of the insect it wishes to 

 retain. 



In the same natural order with the wonderful Viojioea is also 

 found, the Drosera or Sundew, of which we have several species in 

 this island, readily distinguished among our wild plants by the con- 

 spicuous red hairs, each surmounted by a viscid gland, with which 

 the leaves are covered. It is from the presence of these glands glitter- 

 ing in the sun's rays, that the plant derives its common name. They, 

 too, form the deadly trap, fatal to the unwary fly or ant, that touches 

 them. No sooner is the presence of one of these felt, than the 

 neighbouring hairs begin to bend towards the victim, and attach 

 themselves to it ; the more distant ones succeed, until the leaf itself 



* Berkely. (Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany.) 



t R. Spruce. (Venomous KeptHes, etc. Ocean Highways, July, 1873.) 



