SUNDEW FAMILY. Droseracew. 



SUNDEW FAMILY. Droseracece. 



Bog plants with sticky-hairy leaves which are coated 

 with a fluid designed to attract and retain insects — they 

 are, in fact, carnivorous. The small flowers are perfect, 

 with five petals, and few or many stamens, with the an- 

 thers turned outward. Fruit a 1-5-celled capsule. The 

 tiny red filaments of the leaves curl and clasp about a 

 captured insect, and ultimately its juices are absorbed. 



A very small plant with long-stemmed 

 Round-leaved , , a . 



Sundew round leaves lying close to or upon the 



Drosera ground, both leaf and stem covered with 



rotundifolia long, fine, red hairs. The red flower-stem 

 White j g erec t anc \ smooth, and bears about four 



u y- ugus or g j x sma n w i)j£ e flowers, which are fre- 

 quently visited by the fungous gnats and other small 

 woodland insects. The flower-cluster is one-sided, bends 

 over, and the blossoms open one at a time only in the 

 sunshine. The glands of the leaves exude clear drops of 

 fluid, which appear like small dewdrops ; hence the 

 popular name, also the Greek SpodepoS, meaning dewy. 

 The whole plant is so saturated with color that its sap 

 stains paper a ruddy madder purple. 4-9 inches high. 

 In bogs, from Me., south, and west to the Daks. 

 Long-leaved A ver ^ similar species, but with elon- 



Sundew gated blunt-tipped leaves whose stems are 



Drosera inter- long and rather erect. Differing further 



media, var. from the preceding species by the naked 

 Americana , „ , ,, , , . , 



leaf-stems, the red hairs appearing only 



upon the little leaves. It is not so common as the other 



species, but occupies about the same territory. 



Slender ^ wes tern species with 3-inch long, slen- 



Sundew der or linear leaves, also with naked, erect 



Drosera stems. The white flowers are few. Shores 



linearis Q f L a k es Superior and Huron. 



_. _ The leaves of this larger species are re- 



Thread-leaved . , ,,r. F 



Sundew duced to a mere threadlike shape with no 



Drosera distinct stem ; they are glandular, red 



filiformis hairy throughout, the hairs terminated by 



magenta * red bead OF d ° L The flowers are fully * 



inch broad, and dull purple - magenta. 



178 



