CARNIVOROUS PLANTS OF CANADA. 



325 



Fig. 1882. 



stance always presented ; strugg-ling to extri- 

 cate themselves only makes matters worse by 

 exciting" the glands to a more abundant dis- 

 charge. If they alight near the edge where 

 the glands are less numerous, this part of 

 the leaf gradually rolls inward to cover its 

 prey. If the creature be too large to permit 

 of that, it is pushed into the middle where 

 the glands are abundant. The only move- 

 ment is that made by the leaf margin, it is 

 not rapid, it is slow ; if it folds over the in- 

 sect it will remain in that position until its 

 prey has been digested and absorbed, which 

 is usually completed in 24 hours, when it 

 forthwith moves back to its normal position. 

 There is something almost startling when 

 told that a member of the vegetable king- 



dom is endowed with sensation, a seemingly 

 voluntary power of motion, and digestion 

 through the secretion of a digestive fluid like 

 that of animals. What becomes of the 

 vanishing line between the animal and vege- 

 table kingdom ? Doubtless our Pinguicula 

 vulgaris received its name of Butterwort 

 from being greasy to the touch ; but far 

 more than a century ago its leaves were used 

 in dairy farming to produce the same changes 

 in milk that are now brought about by the 

 use of rennet, so that its association with 

 dairy products is more than fanciful. 



The movements made by the members of 

 the Sundew Family are more striking, especi- 

 ally those of the leaves of Venus Flytrap, 

 Dioncea Muscipula, which is not found north 

 of eastern North Carolina. Nevertheless, 

 the process of capturing small animals by 

 by those members growing in Canada is very 

 interesting. Upon the upper surface of the 

 lea\ es of these plants are numerous delicate 

 wine-red filaments, tipped with a tiny round 

 knob, bearing a fluid droplet. These fila- 

 ments are of unequal length, resembling a 

 number of small pins thrust into a cushion to 

 unequal depths, the shorter in the centre the 

 longer at the margin. Each leaf is said to 

 contain about 200. The ball-shaped knob is 

 a gland that secretes the tiny droplet which 

 is transparent and sticky, sufficiently cohesive 

 to be easily drawn out into threads. This 

 droplet glittering brightly in the sunlight 

 much resembles a dewdrop, hence the name 

 Sundew. When an insect or other organic 

 nitrogenous body touches any of these glands 

 they at once begin to discharge a true digest- 

 ing fluid such as is secreted by the leaf-glands 

 of the Butterwort, and having the same pro- 

 perties as the gastric juice of the animal 

 stomach. 



Doubtless, many insects are deceived by 

 the glittering droplets, mistaking them for 

 honey, become entangled among them by 

 reason of their adhesiveness, and in en- 

 deavoring to escape cause the glands to give 



