BRITISH WILD FLOWERS 33 



seeds, and a substitute for anise from sweet 

 cicely. The rose family (Group xvii) yields 

 many valuable fruits, the buttercups (Group 

 xviii) such useful medicines as aconite, the 

 poppies (Plate I) opium and laudanum, the 

 composites (Group viii) the lettuce, chicory, 

 tansy, chamomile, and other useful herbs and 

 roots. 



IO. Fly Catchers 



A few plants get their living, in whole or part, 

 by trapping insects and living things. One 

 family known as bladderworts (5) lives in ditches 

 arid sluggish water. There are three species, 

 with yellow blossoms, and bladders on the 

 leaves (Fig. 8), which float in the water, and are 

 cut into many segments. Closely related, 

 although very different in appearance and habit, 

 are the four butterworts (4), with single violet 

 flowers and greasy, glandular leaves, which curl 

 their edges and so capture their prey (Fig. 9). 

 Then we have the three sundews (82), with their 

 red 'leaves covered with dewy glands (Fig. 10). 

 Among the pink family we also find some plants 

 known as catchfly (126), on account of the 

 viscid hairs with which they are covered, and to 

 which insects are often to be seen adhering. 

 The curious toothwort (45) and teasel (10) are 

 also guilty. 



3 



