CHAPTER IV. 



PREDATORY PLANTS. 



THE analogies between plants and animals are many 

 and remarkable, and have resulted in the breaking 

 down of the arbitrary barriers which of old divided 

 animals from plants. The most able biologists can- 

 not tell you where the vegetable kingdom terminates 

 and the animal world commences. On the border- 

 land they seem to commingle ; and some low forms of 

 life in their earliest stages exhibit the characteristics 

 of animals, whilst on arriving at maturity they are 

 found to be indubitable plants. We have previously 

 alluded to the power of movement possessed by cer- 

 tain plants, and we purpose now to give some account 

 of plants which feed upon insects, and which catch 

 their prey. 



One of the best known because the earliest known 

 of these plants is an American species, the Venus's 

 Fly-trap (Dioncea muscipula), which grows in the 

 marshes of North Carolina. It is a low-growing 

 plant, only attaining the height of a few inches. The 

 leaves are given off direct from the root, each being 

 borne upon a long leaf-stalk, which is winged. The 

 blade of the leaf is divided into two halves, fringed 

 with hairs, and provided along the centre with three 



