SUNDEW FAMILY. Drosemcex 



SUNDEW FAMILY. Droseracece. 



Bog plants with sticky-hairy leaves which are coated 

 with a fluid designed to attract and retain insects they 

 are, in fact, carnivorous. The small flowers are perfect, 

 with five petals, and few or many stamens, with the an- 

 thers turned outward. Fruit a 1-5-celled capsule. The 

 tiny red filaments of the leaves curl and clasp about a 

 captured insect, and ultimately its juices are absorbed. 



A very small plant with long-stemmed 

 Round=leaved , , 



Sundew round leaves lying close to or upon the 



Drosera ground, both leaf and stem covered with 



rotundifolia long, fine, red hairs. The red flower-stem 

 White j s erec t an( j smooth, and bears about four 



or six small white flowers, which are fre- 

 quently visited by the fungous gnats and other small 

 woodland insects. The flower-cluster is one-sided, bends 

 over, and the blossoms open one at a time only in the 

 sunshine. The glands of the leaves exude clear drops of 

 fluid, which appear like small dewdrops ; hence the 

 popular name, also the Greek dpotfspoS, meaning dewy. 

 The whole plant is so saturated with color that its sap 

 stains paper a ruddy madder purple. 4-9 inches high. 

 In bogs, from Me. , south, and west to the Daks. 

 Long-leaved ^ very similar species, but with elon- 



Sundew gated blunt-tipped leaves whose stems are 



Drosera i on g an d rather erect. Differing further 



from the preceding species by the naked 

 leaf -stems, the red hairs appearing only upon the little 

 leaves. It is not so common as the other species, but 

 occupies about the same territory. 



Slender -^- western species with 3-inch long, slen- 



Sundew der or linear leaves, also with naked, erect 



Drosera stems. The white flowers are few. Shores 



linearis of La k es Superior and Huron. 



The leaves of this larger species are re- 

 Thread=leaved 

 Sundew duced to a mere threadlike shape with no 



Drosera distinct stem ; they are glandular, red 



filiformis hairy throughout, the hairs terminated by 



Purple- a red bead or dot The fl owers are fully J 



inch broad, and dull purple - magenta. 

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