194 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[October, 



room glands, which exude a viscid 

 secretion. Insects are canght and 

 held by this sticky substance until 

 they die. The nutritious matter is 

 then dissolved out by an acid secre- 

 tion, and is ultimately absorbed 

 into the substance of the plant by the 

 glands on the leaf. The edge of a 

 leaf when excited by a capture will 

 bend over upon it for a short time ; 

 merely for the purpose, I think, of 

 more effectually securing it, and of 

 bathing it in the secretions. The 

 calyx and flower-stalk, as I have 

 already mentioned, are thickly 

 covered with the same mushroom 

 glands that are found more sparingly 

 on the leaves. I have never seen 

 any evidence that the flower appen- 

 dages took any part in the digestion 

 of insects. They seem to be rather 

 in the nature of an ornamentation 

 than of anything useful. For exhi- 

 bition, therefore, or for double-stain- 

 ing, the calyx and flower stem will 

 be found by far the most attractive 

 part of the plant. The best way to 

 preserve them, as well as all such 

 small material, until wanted for use, 

 is to put them green into a common 

 morphia vial with a few drops each, 

 of alcohol and water, and then to 

 cork and seal them up tight with 

 melted beeswax. To prepare them 

 for the slide these objects may be 

 treated precisely as recommended 

 for sections of castor-oil plant, but 

 should be mounted in a weak solu- 

 tion of glycerin in camphorated 

 water. 



If cells are made of rings punched 

 out of the thin sheets of colored 

 wax, used by artificial flower makers, 

 and then coated with either liquid 

 marine glue, or a mixture in equal 

 parts of gold size and gum damar, 

 dissolved in benzole, this method of 

 liquid mounting may be as easily and 

 safely performed as mounting in 

 balsam. In very many cases simple 

 water, made antiseptic in any man- 



ner, will be found far preferable to 

 any other media, both for retaining 

 the full and distended forms of mi- 

 nute organs, and for bringing out 

 the delicate markings of vegetable 

 structure which the highly refrac- 

 tive balsam would entirely obliter- 

 ate. 



There is only one other insectiv- 

 orous plant found in Florida — the 

 pitcher plant — Sarracenia vario- 

 laris, a species growing only in the 

 South-Atlantic States. It is found in 

 low and w^et places among the open 

 pine-barrens, but is not as abundant 

 as the others which have been men- 

 tioned. The leaf is a hollow, coni- 

 cal or trumpet-shaped tube, with a 

 flange or wing running up one side, 

 and a hood which arches over the 

 orifice of the tube. During the 

 growing season this tube is usually 

 more than half filled with water, 

 which we must suppose secreted by 

 the plant itself, because the hood 

 effectually sheds all rain water from 

 it. Crowded into the bottom of the 

 tubes of mature leaves, we shall al- 

 most invariably find a mass of the 

 hard and indigestible parts of insects. 

 These creatures have been in some 

 way attracted into that suspicious 

 looking receptacle, and once in have 

 been unable to get out again. A 

 mere partially covered tube, how- 

 ever, with a little water in it, is by 

 no means a fly-trap. Not one insect 

 in a hundred would fall into that 

 well and drown, if there were not 

 some sjDecial device absolutely pre- 

 venting it from crawling upward. 

 Now a microscopical examination of 

 the inside of the hood and tube of 

 the pitcher plant reveals the most 

 skilful contrivances for securing 

 insect prey that could possibly be 

 imagined. In the first place, there 

 are in the upper part of the recep- 

 tacle and about the mouth, great 

 numbers of sessile glands which se- 

 crete abundantly a sweet fluid, very 



