XXIV 



CARNIVOROUS PLANTS 



Quite a. number of jilants, belonging to different orders, are provided 

 with the means of capturing small animals, and of digesting tlieir 

 prey and absorbing the nutrient matter thus obtained into their own 

 systems. In this way they are enabled to obtain nitrogenous 

 material which, in the ordinary way, is absorbed in the form of 

 mineral solutions, from the soil, by the agency of the roots. The 

 greater number of these carnivorous jilants are to be found in tropical 

 lands ; but a few are British, and are of such an interesting nature 

 that we propose to devote a short chapter to a description of their 

 peculiar structure and habits. 



The plants to which we refer arc often spoken of as insectivorous 

 species ; but although in nearly all cases the animal food consists 

 almost entirely of insects, it is not entirely derived from this one 

 group of animal life, and therefore the term carnivorous is rather 

 more appropriate. 



In pools we sometimes meet with floating plants that have no 

 true roots, at least at the time of flowering, but consist of a tuft of 

 long, rootlike, submerged branches, bearing much-divided leaves, 

 and sending leafless stalks of yellow flowers above the surface of 

 the water. These plants are the Bladderworts (Utricularia), of the 

 order Lentibulacece, and are so called because they have little 

 air-bladders either attached to the leaves or supported on leafless 

 branches. 



The leaves are divided into numerous very narrow segments, 

 thus presenting a i)roportionately lajge amount of surface to the 

 water for the absorption of dissolved gases required by the plant ; 

 and the flowers consist of a deeply two-lobed calyx ; a spurred 

 corolla, with its mouth closed or nearl}' closed by means of a convex 



