SPREADING DOGBANE 



Pistil. — Ovaries two; style none; stigma large, slightly 

 two-lobed. 



Fruit. — Two slender follicles, five to six inches long; 

 crowded with seeds, each having a tuft of long, silky down 

 at the apex, by means of which the wind carries them away. 



Pollinated by butterflies, beetles, bees, and flies. ' Nec- 

 tar-bearing. 



" They lay wait as he that setteth snares." — Jeremiah v : 26. 



The story of plants that set their traps for insects 

 and lure them to their death is more than a twice-told 



Spreading Dogbane. Apdcynum androscBtnifdlium 



tale. We all know the habits of the Pitcher-Plant, the 

 Venus's Fly-Trap, and the Sundews. Each of these in 

 one way or another seizes the body of an insect and 

 assimilates its juices. Darwin points out that this is 

 probably a device to supply the plant with nitrogen 

 where the roots prove inefficient for the purpose. The 

 plant is supposed to kill for food, and this we must in 

 our own defense hold legitimate, but it seems that there 

 are some flowers which kill with no return to themselves 

 and the question arises. Why? One of these is the 



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