150 DEATH-DEALING FLOWERS 



XXXVI 



It is well known to modern botanists that certain 

 Death-deal- plants are carnivorous. The common sundew 

 ing Flowers (Drosera) of our moors and mosses spreads 

 its little round or spoon-shaped leaves, studded with 

 sensitive and glutinous tentacles, for no other purpose 

 than to attract and imprison small flies, from which it 

 extracts and assimilates the juices, deriving nourish- 

 ment therefrom. 



' This wonderful little plant,' says Mr. Scott Elliot in his 

 Romance of Plant Life, 'shows quite distinctly that there 

 must be some way of sending messages in its leaves. Some- 

 how the message travels from the tentacle which the fly has 

 touched, down the stalk into the leaf, and up into the other 

 tentacles, and tells them that there is something worth 

 stooping for.' 



Certain American botanists are accumulating evidence 

 in support of their belief that plants are not only 

 sensitive, which requires little demonstration, but that 

 they reflect and exercise will-power. At all events, the 

 Drosera, like epicures of higher organisation, are sadly 

 wanting in discretion. Mr. Scott Elliot tells us that 

 ' when they are taken to a greenhouse and experiments 

 are made on them, they run into very great danger. 

 They are almost certain to die of over-feeding or 

 indigestion. It is impossible to keep people from giving 

 them too much to eat.' 



The butter wort (Pinguicula) is a lovely little native 

 plant with violet flowers and waxy, succulent leaves, 

 as innocent in appearance as any herb of the field. 



