298 LARWIRIANA. 



the same or similar facts. Mrs. Treat, of New Jersey, 

 noticed the habitual infolding of the leaf in the lon- 

 ger-leaved species of sundew {Ame?'ican Journal of 

 Science for J^ovember, 1871), as was then thought 

 for the first time — Koth's and Withering's observa- 

 tions not having been looked up. In recording this, 

 the next year, in a very little book, entitled " How 

 Plants Behave," the opportunity was taken to mention, 

 in the briefest way, the capital discovery of Mr. Dar- 

 win that the leaves of Drosera act differently when 

 different objects are placed upon them, the bristles 

 closing upon a particle of raw meat as upon a living 

 insect, while to a particle of chalk or wood ' they are 

 nearly inactive. The same facts were independently 

 brought out by Mr. A. TV. Bennett at the last year's 

 meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and have been mentioned in the 

 journals. 



If to these statements, which we may certify, were 

 added some far more extraordinary ones, communi- 

 cated to the French Academy of Science in May last by 

 M. Zeigler, a stranger story of discrimination on the 

 part of sundew-bristles would be told. But it is safer 

 to wait for the report of the committee to which these 

 marvels were referred, and conclude this sufficiently 

 " strange eventful history " with some details of ex- 

 periments made last summer by Mrs. Treat, of New 

 Jersey, and published in the December number of the 

 American Naturalist. It is well to note that Mrs. 

 Treat selects for publication the observations of one 

 particular day in July, when the sundew-leaves were 

 unusually active ; for their moods vary with the weath- 



