riNGUICULA LUTEA. YELLOW RUTTERWORT. 9 I 



very slow. It is simply the incurving- of the leaf over the insects, 

 seeds, or other objects caught ; and occupied about fifteen hours 

 under Mr. Darwin's observation. It thus appears that the 

 motion has no direct relation to insect-catching, for they are 

 caught and held long before by the viscid glands ; but Mr. 

 Darwin found that the greater the number of glands that 

 could apply their secretions to the insects caught, the more 

 rapidly did digestion go on, and this motion, therefore, appears 

 rather as an aid in nutrition than as a mere insect-catching 

 power as in some plants. Mr. Darwin closes a lengthy but 

 highly interesting paper on his experiences with the common 

 Pingnicitla by remarking, " we may therefore conclude that with 

 its small roots it is not only supported to a large extent by the 

 extraordinary number of insects which it habitually captures, but 

 likewise draws some nourishment from the pollen, leaves, and 

 seeds of other plants, which often adhere to its leaves. It is 

 therefore partly a vegetable as well as an animal feeder." It is 

 well worth while to inform ourselves of these wonderful dis- 

 coveries of Mr. Darwin in connection with the old world plants, 

 because it is more than likely that some highly interesting obser- 

 vations may be made on other species, of which there are some 

 half a dozen natives of the United States, and especially on the 

 one we have now before us, the " Yellow Butterwort." Its 

 leaves are also clammy-pubescent; and, as willbe seen by our 

 plate, it has the remarkably disproportionate roots to leaves so 

 specially noted by Mr. Darwin as a reason why the leaves 

 should aid in the direct nutrition of the plant. In this way it 

 may yet make a history for itself, towards which, so far, it has 

 done litde. All that it has yet contributed is the fact, that it is 

 one of the pretty spring-flowers which give such a charm to the 

 early season of the southern United States. Mr. A. P. Garber 

 tells us in a sketch of early southern flowers, in the first volume 

 of the " Botanical Gazette," that it was one of the first that 

 greeted him on landing at Palatka, Florida, on the i6th of Feb- 

 ruary ; and Mrs. Mary Treat, to whom, through Professor Sar- 



