CHAPTER XX. 



Tab. XXXVIII. — the dion-ea mucipula. 



Venus's fly-trap. Some parts of this plant are so remark- 

 able as to deserve a particular description. It is a native of 

 North Carolina ; the root perennial ; leaves all radical, sup- 

 ported on long fleshy and strongly veined footstalks, leaving 

 a small portion of this next the leaf naked : the leaf itself 

 consists of two semi-Ofval lobes jointed at the back, so as 

 to allow them to fold close together ; they are fleshy, and 

 when viewed through a lense glandular, sometimes of a red- 

 dish colour on the upper surface ; the sides of both lobes are 

 furnished with a row of cartilaginous cilise which stand near- 

 ly at right angles with the surface of the leaf, and lock into 

 each other when they close. Near the middle of each lobe 

 are three small spines, which are supposed to assist in de- 

 stroying the entrapped insect. In warm weather the lobes 

 are fully expanded and highly irritable, and if a fly or other 

 insect at this time hght upon them they suddenly close, and 

 the poor animal is imprisoned till it dies. See Curtis's Bo- 

 tanical Magazine, No. 785. 



