XVI 



PLANTS THAT KIDNAP 



PLANTS actually kidnap! Some are worse 

 than highway robbers, allowing their captives 

 to die in confinement or killing them outright ; oth- 

 ers are merely selfish and desirous of enslaving or 

 using their prey to their advantage without giving 

 value received. It is one of the strange incon- 

 sistencies of nature this capturing and holding of 

 an insect by a plant which makes a victim of the 

 friend that has benefited it. As most of the kid- 

 napping plants receive no sustenance from the 

 death of their victims, it is more kind to suppose 

 that this act on their part is unavoidable. 



The great family of Orchids claim the first men- 

 tion as kidnappers. Their purpose is fertilisation, 

 and their methods are many, and cunningly de- 

 vised; although they are not cruel, for they release 

 the guest as soon as the act of fertilisation is accom- 

 plished. This kidnapping may be excused when 

 it is considered that without the aid of certain in- 

 sect "go-betweens" many species of orchids would 

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