INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 197 



petals are arched over the expanded umbrella- 

 shaped style in a strange manner. The leaves 

 grow in the form of fanciful pitchers, and hold 

 water and usually many drowned insects. 



I have observed this species closely, but have 

 never been able to find what it is that attracts so 

 many insects into the pitchers. I am satisfied, 

 however, from repeated experiments, that there is 

 something. I have large, strong plants growing 

 in an artificial bog near the house, where I can 

 conduct experiments at my leisure. When the 

 new leaves have fully expanded, I set bottles 

 (which have about the same breadth of mouth as 

 the leaves, and will hold about the same amount) 

 partly filled with clear water by the side of some 

 of the plants, and these bottles do not capture 

 any insects. Other bottles of the same capacity, 

 partly filled with sweetened water and set near 

 the leaves, invariably captured as many insects as 

 the leaf-pitchers, and yet I could not detect any 

 luring bait about these leaves ; but the insects 

 must find something or they would not enter into 

 them any more than they would into the bottles 

 of clear water. 



There is a Pitcher-plant (S. variolaris) which 

 grows in the South, that has a tempting bait ex- 



