i8o A GARDEN DIARY 



the largest of them appropriately called anglica 

 being much commoner in Ireland than else- 

 where in these islands. 



A very slight acquaintance with their habits 

 could hardly fail, I think, to convince even the 

 most sceptical that their roots are mainly em- 

 ployed as anchors, and water-pipes, while for 

 a supply of that nitrogen which every plant 

 requires they are chiefly, if not exclusively, 

 dependent upon insects. Of these the two lesser 

 species would appear to content themselves with 

 the smallest of Diptera and Lepidoptera, whereas 

 anglica will occasionally tackle larger prey, and I 

 have myself seen it with a good-sized moth (a 

 noctua) attached to and nearly covering the entire 

 disk, the long tentacle -like hairs being closely 

 inflected over the victim, whose struggles are 

 soon put an end to, once the sticky secretion 

 exuding from the hairs closes above the trachea. 

 When the leaf re-opens nearly the whole of the 

 insect (be it fly, moth or beetle) will be found to 

 have disappeared, even the wings being reduced 

 to a few glittering fragments. No animal sub- 

 stance in fact comes amiss ; fragments of bone, 

 hide, meat-fibrine, and even, according to one 

 authority, tooth enamel, softening, and in time 

 dissolving under the powerful solvent secreted 

 by the glands. Whether the Droseraceae have 

 the power of attracting their prey, or must wait 

 until chance sends it within their clutches, seems 



