118 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



thirds full of corpses, but in some of them large, fat. white maggots, all 

 of a very unprepossessing appearance, were quite alive and apparently 

 thriving. These must have been the larvae of a blowfly similar to that 

 which has been mentioned by others as inhabiting Sarracenia. At the 

 same place a white spider was very often to be seen. Its web was spun 

 across the mouth of a pitcher, and its body was quite invisible against 

 the bleached remains inside. It had suited its colour to the corpses within, 

 in order that it might steal from the Nepenthes the due reward of all its 

 ingenious contrivances ! " 



We have dealt at some length with these insect-eating plants, but we 

 have not yet exhausted the list. One other that had formerly been re- 

 garded merely as a root-parasite has of late years been at least suspected 

 of getting some of its food by predatory courses. We refer to the 

 Toothwort (Lathrcea squamaria), a rare but interesting plant. During about 

 eleven months of the year it leads a subterranean existence, fattening upon 



the sap of the elm and hazel, to whose 

 roots it is attached by suckers. About 

 March it makes its presence known 

 above ground by sending up short, 

 thick, fleshy flowering stems almost white 

 in colour, but usually tinged with violet. 

 The flowers are thickly crowded on the 

 greater part of this stem, but below them 

 are a number of curled flesh}^ scales 

 really leaves, but not much like the 

 ordinary forms of leaves. On the under- 

 side there are peculiar and complicated 

 chambers which are only accessible 

 near the turned-down tip of the leaf ; 

 but though this appears not to be a 

 sufficiently obvious way in. the Tooth- 

 wort has learnt the weakness of its 

 victims. It is the nature of many of the 

 smallest creatures to look out for hidden 

 retreats in which they can enjoy a moist, 

 cool atmosphere ; and so it is stated that 

 many animalcules and the very smallest 

 forms of insect life explore these laby- 

 rinths, and mostly fail to find the way 

 out again. It is not asserted that the 

 Toothwort pours out a digestive fluid, 

 but some observers believe they throw 

 out wisps of protoplasm from the liv- 

 ing cells which extract the soft parts 



FIG. 152. TRUMPET-LEAF (Sarracenia 

 flaw). 



Grows to a height of two feet; yellow in colour, 

 the lid netted with purple veins. NORTH AMERICA. 



