440 THE PLEASURE, OR [JULY. 



Those plants which are placed in the greatest \varmth in winter, 

 continue vigorous and retain their faculty of contracting on being 

 touched ; but those that are in a moderate warmth have little or no 

 motion. 



There are 84 species of Mimosa described ; 2, with simple 

 leaves ; 6, with leaves simply pinnate ; 3, with bigeminate or ter- 

 geminate leaves ; 9, with leaves conjugate, and at the same time 

 pinnate; and 64, with doubly-pinnate leaves ; several of the species 

 are more or less sensitive, but the far greater number not at all. 



Venus's fly-trap,. 



The Dionaa Muscipula, or Venus's fly-trap, is one of the most 

 extraordinary productions of nature : in this plant there is an aston- 

 ishing contrivance, to prevent the depredations of insects : the 

 leaves are numerous, generally bending downwards, or rather 

 spreading upon the surface of the earth, and placed in a circular 

 order ; each leaf is divided, as it were, into two joints, the lower, 

 flat, longish, two edged, and inclining to heart-shaped ; some con- 

 sider this lower joint a winged petiole, similar to that on an or 

 leaf. The upper joint consists of two lobes, each semi-oval, the 

 margins furnished with stiff hairs like the eye lashes, locking into 

 each other when the lobes close, like the teeth of a rat-trap, to 

 which the lobes, marginal hair$, and the manner of their closing, 

 bear a particular resemblance. The interior of the lobes is very 

 irritable, but more particularly so in warm weather, when if an unfor- 

 tunate fly, or any other small animal happens to creep on it, the lobes 

 immediately fold up and confine it : the greater efforts the creature 

 makes to disengage itself, the more it irritates the interior parts, 

 and consequently, is the more firmly secured : here it remains till 

 crushed or starved to death ; when, the irritation having ceased, 

 the lobes open as before, and the remains of the insect is either 

 washed out by the rain, or carried away by the wind. The lobes 

 will, also, close if the interior be touched with a straw, &c. 



This plant is a native of the Carolinas where it grows in swamps : 

 it produces in July and August, bunches of handsome white flow- 

 ers, on stems of from six to eight inches high, and in the eastern 

 and middle states must be treated as a hardy green-house plant. 



It is propagated both by seeds and suckers, requires a swampy 

 soil, with a mixture of fine sand, and must be kept well watered and 

 in the shade during the summer months. This is a very proper 

 period to take off, and plant the suckers : the seed should be sown 

 early in spring, forwarded in a hot-bed, and, during the summer 

 months, the seedlings ought to be carefully protected from the 

 mid-day sun. 



The Tutsan-leaved Dogsbane. 



The AfiQcynum androsoeinifolium^ or Tutsan-leav'd Dogsbane, 

 is- not only interesting on account of its beauty and fragrance, but 

 also on account of the curious structure of its flowers, and their 

 singular method and property of catching flies. 



