104 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



Photo by] [J. J. Ward. 



FIG. 138. SECTION THROUGH LEAF OF BUTTERWOKT. 



A thin slice from the leaf is here shown highly magnified to make clear 



the position of the stalked glands. They are seen to arise from special 



cells of the epidermis. 



oval leaf-blades (fig. 128). 

 On another page is a picture 

 of an African species, 

 Drosera capensis, the Cape 

 Sundew (fig. 134), which was 

 introduced from the Cape 

 of Good Hope in the year 

 1875. Its pretty purple 

 flowers are borne on a leaf- 

 less stem or scape,* which 

 is longer than the leaves 

 but not quite so hairy. In 

 almost every part of the 

 world one or more species 

 of the family may be found. 

 Australia has its twin-leaved 

 Sundew (D. binata] and 

 many others ; India its 

 Drosera lunata, with curious 

 moon-shaped leaves ; Africa its few-flowered Sundew (D. paucifloroi), as well 

 as the Cape species already described; the long-leaved Sundew (D. longi- 

 folia) is spread over Northern Europe, Canada, arid Brazil ; while the 

 United States have a pink- and purple-flowered species (D. filiformis], 

 which is insectivorous like all the rest. 



The margins of the leaf contract so that the leaf-blade is converted into 

 a cup, and into this receptacle the glands pour out a fluid that has the power 

 of digesting the soft parts of the insect, and the enriched fluid is then 

 reabsorbed by the cells of the leaf, and through them distributed to the 

 plant as a whole. This process of digestion and absorption takes about 

 two days, and when it is completed the leaf again expands. A remarkable 

 feature of the plant's behaviour when an insect has been captured is the 

 knowledge of locality shown by the tentacles: from all parts of the leaf 

 the tentacles bend to the particular spot where the captive is, every tentacle 

 co-operating to prevent the possibility of escape. The information must 

 be transmitted from cell to cell in some way not understood. 



The Droseras are very partial to rump-steak, and devour it greedily 

 when they get the chance that is to say, when they are under experi- 

 ment; but cinders, and bits of moss and quill, and tiny balls of paper, 

 they will have nothing of. Drops of milk and dissolved isinglass do not 

 appear to come amiss to them, but tea they determinedly eschew, and 

 will not deign to bend their tentacles even a hair's breadth if you sprinkle 

 a little of the refreshing beverage on their leaves. Insects, however, are 



* A leafless stem, springing from the base of a plant and bearing only a flower or flowers, 

 such as is seen in the Primrose, Cowslip, Hyacinth, etc., is a scape. 



