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PERHAPS it would be difficult to find in the whole 

 range of vegetable creation anything more curious 

 than the carnivorous or flesh-eating plants. That animals 

 eat plants creates in us no emotion of curiosity, for this is 

 the common law of nature. But that plants should devour 

 animals is a marvel to which few minds uninitiated in science 

 would give credence. Though these strange forms of vege- 

 table life have been known for about a century, yet it has 

 been but a few years since the attention of naturalists was 

 first specially called to their habits and character. No one 

 has probably done more to explain the life and operations 

 of the flesh-eating plants than Mr. Darwin. 



For centuries strange rumors had been circulated of the 

 existence of huge plants in the more remote and unvisited 

 parts of Asia which would imprison and destroy large ani- 

 mals and men that would venture within reach of their great 

 quivering leaves armed with hooked spines, the flesh of the 

 dead victim being absorbed into their structure, but all these 

 giant flesh-eating trees or plants have so far proved to be 

 mere myths. Science has discovered, however, that there is 

 some foundation for these exciting fictions, and it has not 

 been obliged to go to the distant East to find it, for flesh- 

 eating plants are by no means uncommon in this country 

 and Europe. But these plants confine their destructive pro- 

 pensities to the crawling and flying insects which are beguiled 

 by some tempting reward to rest on their leaves. Such a 

 strange provision of nature is no less interesting than if these 

 plants had the power to destroy the larger animals, for it is 



