52 Country Rambles. 



Directly that any little fly or midge comes in contact with 

 the sticky drops, the unfortunate creature is taken captive, 

 just as birds are caught with bird-lime. Held fast in its 

 jewelled trap, the poor prisoner soon expires; and then, 

 either its juices or the gaseous products of the decom- 

 position, appear to be absorbed by the plant, and thus 

 to constitute a portion of its diet. This is rendered the 

 more probable by the experiments of the late Mr. Joseph 

 Knight, of Chelsea, who fed the large American fly- 

 catcher, the Dioncea, with fibres of raw beef, and found 

 the plant all the better for its good dinners. Certainly it 

 cannot be asserted positively that the Drosera is nourished 

 by its animal prey, but it is difficult to imagine that so 

 extraordinary and successful an apparatus is given to 

 these plants for the mere purpose of destroying midges, 

 and that the higher purpose of food is not the primary 

 one. On the larger leaves may generally be seen relics 

 of the repast, shrivelled bodies, wings, and legs, remind- 

 ing one of the picked bones that strew the entrance to the 

 giant's cavern in the fairy tale. Sundew plants may be 

 kept in a parlour, by planting them in a dishful of green 

 moss, which must be constantly flooded with water, and 

 covering the whole with a glass shade. Exposed to the 

 sunshine, their glittering drops come out abundantly, but 

 the redness of the hairs diminishes sensibly, owing, 

 perhaps, to their being denied their natural prey. The 

 flowers of these singular plants are white, and borne on 

 slender stalks that rise to the height of three or four 

 inches. The roots survive the winter, 



