LECT. XI.] CAULINAR AND FOLIAR APPENDAGES. 685 



clusicefolia *, and that of Marcgrafia. In these 

 instances, however, the name ascidium can apply 

 to the form only of these organs, as they do 

 not appear intended to hold fluids ; and perhaps 

 they may rather be regarded as ascidiform bracteae 

 than asascidia-f~. 



vii. Anomalies. The only appendage which 

 I shall notice under this head > belongs to a North 

 American plant, Venus' Fly-trap, Dionoea musci- 

 pula ; and it is certainly the most extraordinary 

 production of the vegetable kingdom. The leaf of 

 this plant is radical, sessile, and nearly spa- 

 tulate in figure (Plate 10, fig. 5. c.) : the midrib, 

 however, is produced beyond the apex of the leaf, 

 and supports ^an appendage which has some re- 

 semblance to a steel trap. It consists of two 

 lobes, almost elliptical (fig. 5. b.), connected to- 

 gether by a whitish, cartilaginous costa, which is, 

 apparently, a production of the midrib of the leaf. 

 The lobes resemble the leaf in colour and con- 

 sistence, but their margin is somewhat cartilagi- 

 nous, and furnished with long setaceous teeth, 

 placed at the distance of the tenth of an inch from 

 one another. The superior disk of each lobe is 

 studded with minute glands, and furnished with 

 erect little spines (fig. 5. a.), placed so as to form 

 an equilateral triangle, with the apex pointing 



* Jacq. Amer. Tab. 51. fig. 2. 



f They have been termed Anthocerynium. 



