682 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. XI. 



Macbride, of South Carolina, it appears that the 

 flies, which are attracted to these leaves, first alight 

 upon the faux of the pitcher, and appear to sip, 

 with eagerness, the sweet secretion exuded from 

 the glandular band, which you have seen is situ- 

 ated just below the margin. " In this position they 

 " linger ; but at length, allured as it would seem 

 " by the pleasure of taste, they enter the tubes. 

 " The fly which has thus changed its situation, will 

 " be seen to stand unsteadily, it totters for a few 

 " seconds, slips, and falls to the bottom of the tube, 

 " where it is either drowned, or attempts in vain to 

 " escape against the points of the hairs*." Dr. 

 Macbride attributes the fall of the fly to the down- 

 ward or inverted position of the short attenuated 

 hairs at the faux, on which the fly is unable to take 

 a hold sufficiently strong to support itself; but 

 I am inclined to think that a kind of intoxication 

 is produced in the insect, either by the secretion 

 it sips, or by some exhalation within the pitcher ; 

 for I have seen flies, which had fallen, take wing 

 within some of the large pitchers, and again drop 

 before they had reached the faux : and we may 

 infer that this frequently occurs from the humming 

 noise within the pitcher, which is never heard, but 

 when a fly is using the wings. That this seldom 

 occurs in S. adunca, the species on which Dr. 

 Macbride made his observations, is probable, be- 



* Linnean Transactions, vol. xii. p. 4-8. 



