THE PITCHER-PLANT. 57 



The Venus Fly-trap, Dioncea muscipula, a native of southeastern 

 North Carolina, is another carnivorous plant. At the extremity of 

 its obcordate leaves, are two lobes standing at something less 

 than a right angle to each other, hinged together at the back upon 

 the prolonged midrib of the leaf. The edges of these lobes are 

 armed with long spines which shut by and between each other 

 when the lobes close. Each of the lobes has three slender, sharp, 

 sensitive hairs placed triangularly some little distance apart upon 

 its inner surface. The slightest touch upon either of these hairs, 

 as the lighting upon it of the smallest insect, or brushing it with 

 their wings, or touching it with their legs or bodies as they crawl 

 over the surface, causes the lobes to shut together like a trap, 

 instantly imprisoning the unwary victim. If he be not too large 

 to pass between the closed teeth at the edge of the lobes he may 

 escape. Otherwise he is doomed, for the leaf immediately pours 

 out upon him from glands specially provided an abundance of 

 digestive fluid which soon kills and dissolves him. 



As with the Sundew so with the Dioncea, a true digestive 

 process takes place perfectly analogous to that in the animal econ- 

 omy and the plant gets much nourishment from this source of 

 food supply. It has been observed that plants provided with this 

 special adaptation for securing food have smaller roots than other 

 kinds of plants not so furnished. There are several other genera 

 of plants that possess this extraordinary function, which we have 

 heretofore considered an exclusive attribute of animal life. 



But in the Sarracenia we have the case of plants adapted to 

 capture and devour insects, but with no ability truly to digest them. 

 While they entrap and destroy great numbers of them and are 

 obviously contrived especially to do that, they make use of them 



