288 APPENDIX BY THE 



singular experiment ; he fed the vegetable on beef-steak, 

 small pieces of the beef being laid within the hollow- 

 leaves. The superior beauty and size of the particular 

 plant treated in this way, subsequently proved that the 

 surmise was correct, and that the pitcher-plant is to a 

 certain degree, carnivorous. Such may very possibly be 

 the case with other flowers which are known to entrap in- 

 sects of different kinds ; they may need these as nourish- 

 ment. Generally speaking, it is the blossom and not, as 

 in the instance of the Sarracenia, the leaf which allures 

 the insect and thus destroys it ; in this sense the hunter's- 

 cup is more ogre-like than most of its companions pos- 

 sessing the same dangerous power, since it is not only 

 during the season of flowering, but throughout the sum- 

 mer that unwary flies and gnats are drowned in its leafy 

 reservoirs. 



NOTE H. 

 THE IVY, (Hedera Helix,) p. 64, 



The Ivy is found throughout most of the countries of 

 Europe, and also in parts of Asia and Africa. It was one 

 of the sacred plants of the old Egyptians, and held the 

 same character among the Greeks also. In our own west- 

 ern hemisphere the Ivy was unknown until introduced by 

 the colonists from Europe; nor does it seem likely ever 

 to become, like so many other contributions of the old 

 countries, naturalized here ; our dryer summers or colder 

 winters, do not apparently agree with it. Possessing one 

 qualification rare among climbing plants, that of being an 

 evergreen, it may, on this account, be considered as the 

 finest of the purely ornamental vines of temperate re- 

 gions. It is believed to live to a very great age, as the 



