INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS 



363 



are absorbed by the leaf, leaving only the indigestible 

 remnants, such as wings, hairs, and claws, on the blade. 

 After the ' meal ' the tentacles bend outwards once more 

 and again secrete the sticky and attractive, though 

 deceptive fluid. 



In the plant photographed (Fig. 232) some leaves were 

 digesting food ; others had ' scraps ' and ' leavings ' on 

 them ; some were fresh and open, waiting for prey ; while 

 in the centre of the rosette the 

 youngest leaves were still un- 

 folded, like a tiny hand with 

 innumerable fingers tightly 

 closed. 



The Butterwort (Fig. 234, 1) 

 has a rosette of radicle leaves 

 pressing so firmly against the 

 ground that when the plant is 

 taken up they bend sharply 

 backwards (Fig. 234, 2). Each 

 leaf is yellowish-green and 

 ovate, with its edges uprolled, 

 and the flowers, though different 

 in structure, resemble those of 

 the Wood Violet. The surface 

 of the leaf is greasy to the touch, 

 due to a secretion from glandular 



hairs. Insects alighting on the leaf adhere to it, and 

 under the stimulus the edges may roll farther inwards 

 and more or less enclose the prey. A digestive ferment 

 is now secreted, and the products are absorbed as in the 

 Sundew. 



In pools of the lowland moors, in stagnant ditches and 

 slow-moving streams or drains, a curious insectivorous 

 plant may be found with much-branched, thread-like, green 

 shoots, bearing on them numerous small bladders (Fig. 234, 



Fig. 233. Leaf of Sun- 

 dew. Tentacles on the 

 left curving as the result 

 of stimulation (Pfeffer). 



