INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 295 



ization entails corresponding ailments. Mr. Canby 

 tells "US that lie gave to one of his Dionasa-subjects a 

 fatal dyspepsia by feeding it with cheese ; and under 

 Mr. Darwin's hands another suffers ivova. paraplegia. 



Finally, Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's experiments, de- 

 tailed at the last meeting of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, show that the same 

 electrical cm*rents are developed upon the closing of 

 the Dionsea-trap as in the contraction of a muscle. 



If the Yenus's Fly-trap stood alone, it would be 

 doubly marvelous — first, on account of its carnivorous 

 propensities, and then as constituting a real anomaly in 

 organic J^ature, to which nothing leads up. Before 

 acquiescing in such a conclusion, the modern naturalist 

 would scrutinize its relatives. ITow, the nearest rela- 

 tives of our vegetable wonder are the sundews. 



While Dionsea is as local in habitation as it is sin- 

 gular in structure and habits, the Droseras or sundews 

 are widely diffused over the world and numerous in 

 species. The two whose captivating habits have at- 

 tracted attention abound in bogs all around the north- 

 ern hemisphere. That flies are caught by them is a 

 matter of common observation ; but this was thought 

 to be purely accidental. They spread out from the 

 root a circle of small leaves, the upper face of which 

 especially is beset and the margin fringed with stout 

 bristles (or what seem to be such, although the struct- 

 ure is more complex), tipped by a secreting gland, 

 which produces, while in vigorous state, a globule of 

 clear liquid like a drop of dew— whence the name, 

 both Greek and English. One expects these seeming 

 dew-drops to be dissipated by the morning sun ; but 



