resort to slake their thirst, and are drowned by thousands. Teazles 

 abound in every hedge row in England ; and it is a rare thing to 

 look into one of these natural reservoirs without seeing it dark with 

 the bodies of gnats, flies, and small moths. 



We have analogous examples in many of the pine apple plants 

 (Bromeliacece), which flourish in tropical lands, and whose fleshy 

 leaves are capable of holding a considerable amount of water at 

 their base. What destruction they cause among the insect tribes 

 may be seen by the following passage : — 



*' The ground was clothed with the dwarf Sumara and other 

 Bromelias. These may be compared with the " arhresdes voyageurs " 

 in various regions. A full-grown plant gives a pint of water collected 

 between the stalk and the bases of the leaves ; when fresh it is pure, 

 wholesome, and free from vegetable taste, but not nectar. After 

 a time of drought the fluid becomes turbid, a fine black mould 

 collects in it, and dead insects and live tad-poles (especially those 

 of a small pale yellow frog, (Hyla luteola) require it to be filtered."* 



A difierent, but equally efiective class of drowners, is known 

 under the name of Pitcher plant, for specimens of which we 

 must look to the genera Sarracenia^ Heliamphora, Cephalotus, and 

 Nepenthes. 



AU of these plants are constructed on nearly identical principles, 

 viz., the conversion of the leaf, either entirely, or at the point 

 only, into a cylindrical cup, with or without a cover, and always 

 containing a supply of fluid. This fluid is not true water ; that 

 is to say, it does not descend from the clouds, but is distilled by 

 the plant itself. Consequently the statement that the Hd of the 

 Pitcher is raised at night to catch the dew, and closed during the 

 day to prevent evaporation — has no foundation in fact. 



The Uquid has been analysed by Dr. Volcker, who finds that it 

 consists mainly of citric and malic acids, the same acids, as give 

 their pleasant flavour to most fruit ; thus confirming Lindley's state- 

 ment, that the fluid of the Pitcher plant " emits while boiling an 

 odour like that of baked apple, "t 



The same property of secreting a transparent liquid exists also in 

 certain arums, one species of which Richardia cethiopica, commonly 

 called the lily, adorns our gardens with its large flowers, in the 

 shape of the classical cornucopia. I have never observed the 

 phenomenon in this colony, but in England where Richardia is a 

 greenhouse plant, the dripping of water from the points of the 

 leaves may often be seen. 



Curiously enough the same property is shared by some tiny insects 

 of the Homopterous Order, known as plant lice. In these species, 

 which appear to be confined to Africa and Madagascar, a limpid 

 fluid exudes from the apex of the abdomen in such quantities 

 as to form a continuous shower, t Bach states in his " Wunder 

 der Insekten Welt," that '' on placing a quart bottle under a mass 

 of half -grown larvae, 60 or 70 in number, from which large drops 

 were falling in quick succession, it was filled in an hour and a half." 



As nature, however, has provided neither the Richardia nor the 



•Burton. (Highlands of the Brazil). 

 tLindley. Vegetable Kingdom. 

 ^Livingstono. Missionary Travels. 



