i 4 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



seeds to be emptied out by the wind. The seeds are minute and 

 weigh only .00003 of a grain. 



Grass of Parnassus is a peat-loving plant and requires a humus or 

 peat soil, which is to be found only in moist situations on a variety of 

 rock soils. 



A cluster-cup fungus, Uromyces parnassue, attacks the Grass of 

 Parnassus. 



Parnassia, Linnaeus, is from the Mount of Parnassus, and was called 

 gramcu parnassium by Dodonaeus. The second name (also Latin) 

 refers to its paludal habitat. 



Grass of Parnassus is called White Buttercups, White Liverwort. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



in. Parnassiapalustris, L. Stem erect, short, radical leaves petio- 

 late, cordate flowers solitary, white, large, petals veined, with claw, 

 with scales or nectaries fringed with hairs, and yellow glands. 



Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia, L.) 



This interesting plant is found to-day, and not earlier, so far as we 

 know, in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, 

 Siberia, Western Asia, East and West North America, from the Arctic 

 Circle to Florida. In Great Britain it is absent from North Wilts, East 

 (iloucs, W. Gloucs, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Flint, Mid Lanes, Linlith- 

 gow, Stirling; and in the Highlands is found at 2300 ft.; but in many 

 counties where it once grew it has disappeared owing to drainage, &c. 



Wherever the Sundew is found it is a certain sign of the existence, 

 now or formerly, of a typical bog. It is a plant of the bog or heath, 

 living the life of a Xerophyte, and is associated with such true bog 

 plants as Grass of Parnassus, Cranberry, Rosemary, Bog Pimpernel, 

 Lousewort, Butterwort, Bladderwort, Bog Myrtle, Bog Asphodel, &c. 

 It prefers a shallow pool or wet ground in the middle of some upland 

 bog, where it grows on spongy peat. 



The interest attaching to this peculiar plant refers not to its habit 

 of growth so much as to its habit of capturing and assimilating its food, 

 which in this case is organic. It is, in other words, insectivorous, 

 attracting and imprisoning flies in, and by aid of, its glandular sticky 

 leaves (hence the first Latin and English names), which close up when 

 touched, being highly sensitive. The juices secreted 1 in the hollow of 



1 The secretion, which is shiny, giving the plant its name, is at the base of the glandular tentacles 

 which enable the plant to capture its prey. Sir Francis Darwin found that plants fed on meat were more 

 vigorous than those kept without animal food. See also Charles Darwin, Insectivorous Plants. 



