The Strange Story of the Flowers 



ward to Louisiana and Florida. Its l< 

 develop themselves into lidded cups, half-filled 

 with sweetish juice, which first lures a fly or ant, 

 then makes him tipsy, and then despatches him. 

 The broth resulting is both meat and drink to the 

 plant, serving as a store and reservoir against 

 times of drought and scarcity. 



Now the question is, How came about this 

 strange and somewhat horrid means of liveli- 

 hood ? How did plants of so diverse families 

 turn the tables on the insect world, and learn to 

 eat instead of being themselves devoured? A 

 beginner in the builder's art finds it much more 

 gainful to examine the masonry of foundations, 

 the rearing of walls, the placing of girders and 

 joists, the springing of arches and buttresses, than 

 to look at a cathedral, a courthouse, or a bank, 

 finished and in service. In like manner a student 

 of insect-eating plants tries to find their leaves 

 in the making, in all the various stages which 

 bridge their common forms with the shapes they 

 assume when fully armed and busy. Availing 

 himself of the relapses into old habits which 

 plants occasionally exhibit under cultivation, 

 Mr. Dickson has taught us much regarding the 

 way the pitcher plant of Australia, the i ephalotus, 

 has come to be what it is. He has arranged in a 

 connected scries all the forms of its leaf from that 

 of a normal leaf with a mere dimple in it. to the 

 deeply pouched and lidded pitcher ready for 

 deceitful hospitalities. And similar transfor- 

 mations have without doubt taken place in the 

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