CLASS V. ORDER VII.] MYOSURUS. 459 



It was at one lime thought that the leaves possessed the same 

 irritable property that the America Fly-trap (Dioncea Muscipula ) has, 

 hence it is that they are sometimes called English Fly-trap ; but the 

 manner in which flies are entangled in the leaves of this plant appears 

 quite different. Each hair is terminated with a small gland, which 

 secretes a glutinous fluid, and when any insect settles upon any part 

 of the leaf it sticks, and by its struggles to escape only entangles itself 

 the more, and at length becomes so surrounded with the curved hairs, 

 attaching themselves by the sticky fluid, as to entirely prevent the 

 escape of the insect, and is held in that position, which consequently 

 destroys it. 



We have already adverted (in page 122) to the power of which 

 these plants are accused, in causing the rot in sheep; and it was for- 

 merly thought that they were useful in promoting the cure of con- 

 sumptive persons, from the idea which the old doctors had, that because 

 they saw the glands on the hairs moist with these secretions, they would 

 supply the moisture which they thought was necessary to prevent 

 the drying up of the lungs, which seems to have been their notion of 

 the disease known by the name of consumption ; but the acridity of 

 these plants appears from the account of Gerarde to have caused those 

 who took this new restorative to die the sooner. All of them seem to 

 contain a considerable proportion of colouring matter, as they stain the 

 paper on which they are preserved for a considerable time after they 

 are dried. 



ORDER VII. 



POLYGYNIA. MANY PISTILS. 



GENUS CIV. MYO'SURUS. LINN. Mouse-tail. 

 Nat. Ord. RANUNCULA'CE^E. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx of five pieces, elongated at the base. Corolla of 

 five petals, with filiform tubular claws. Capsules indehiscent, 

 several, triquetrous, single seeded, inserted into a much elongated 

 columnar receptacle, and terminated by the styles. Name from 

 JAU?, /AUOJ , a mouse ; and O uj, a tail ; from the much elongated 

 cylindrical receptacle. 



1. M. mini'mus, Linn. (Fig. 523.) Common Mouse-tail. 

 English Botany, t. 435. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 124. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 152. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 10. 



Root small, fibrous. The whole plant herbaceous, from two to six 

 inches high. Leaves numerous, all radical, mostly erect, linear, spatu- 

 VOL. i. 3 o 



