THE BOG. 155 



mode of exit. Its efforts, though expended in 

 vain, as it regards its own escape, are not altoge- 

 ther profitless, for in the course of its wanderings it 

 dislodges some grains of pollen, and conveys them 

 unwittingly to the place where they were wanted. 

 By these means the seed-vessel is rendered pro- 

 ductive ; and then, the flower having fulfilled its 

 end, fades, and the poor prisoner is released from 

 his treadmill labours. 



But, perhaps, the most sanguinary of all vege- 

 table fly-catchers is the Venus's Fly-trap. The 

 leaves of this plant are terminated by two lobes, 

 armed with several long spines, which, when a fly 

 alights between them, lock into one another, and 

 crush the unfortunate visitor to death. Specimens 

 of this plant are sometimes to be seen in hot- 

 houses. 



Most of the grass-like plants which are to be 

 found in bogs, and on the banks of ponds and 

 canals, belong to the genus Carex or Sedge. Some 

 of the smaller kinds afford a coarse pasturage for 

 cattle ; but the larger sort are so rigid and tough 

 that animals will rarely touch them. Some species, 

 growing for the most part on the banks of rivers, 

 are very handsome plants ; one particularly,* 

 which bears at the extremity of a stem, two or 

 three feet high, a group of purplish-black catkins, 

 is a very stately herb. You must use some degree 

 of caution, however, in attempting to gather it, 

 for the angles of its three-cornered stem are 

 armed with minute points, like the teeth of a saw. 

 All the sedges have stems more or less triangular, 

 and by this mark they may be distinguished from 



* Carex riparia. 



