SUNDEWS. 47 



their natural state. Although this plant is called Tricolor 

 (three-coloured), it is often entirely purple, and there is 

 also a white variety. Here the stem is more decided than 

 even in the Mountain Violet, and attains a length of several 

 inches. The name Pansy is derived from the French motto, 

 "Penzes a moi," and Shakespeare evidently has this in his 

 mind when he says, " There's Pansies, that's for thoughts." 

 Louis XV., when wishing to show favour to his physician 

 Quesnay, devised for him a group of Pansies as his armorial 

 bearings. Our English name, Heart's-ease, is a still prettier one. 



We have a specimen of one Violet more, the cream-coloured 

 Violet (V. lactea). It varies from the others in its pale colour, 

 and leaves more lance-shaped than heart-shaped. I found this 

 rare plant in a shaking bog near Tiverton, in Devon, some 

 years ago. 



The SUNDEW family has a three-valved seed-vessel and pro- 

 minent stigma closely resembling that of the Violet, but the 

 small regular petals and leafless stem, curved when young like 

 fronds of Ferns, clearly distinguish the two. The leaves of 

 the Sundews are fringed with long crimson hairs, bearing 

 glands which collect the dew. They grow on footstalks, but 

 lie in a starry form close to the ground. The tiny flowers are 

 white and grow in spikes. Our English Sundews have five 

 stamens ; but in foreign members of the family there are often 

 twice, thrice, or four times the number. When small insects 

 touch the hairs, the leaf closes upon them and keeps them 

 imprisoned. When pressed the leaves make a red mark on 

 the paper. 



The Bound-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), is a fre- 

 quent denizen of our moors, luxuriating on the margins of 

 peat bogs. I have found its crimson-tinted stars and slender 

 spikes on the Yorkshire moors in very many places. I have 

 gathered it on Eudd Heath in Cheshire ; in Cornwall ; and 

 last autumn I found it in abundance on the swampy coast 

 of Arran, and on the hills about Oban. Specimens of the 



