JULY 153 



among the hairs, which prevent it withdrawing. 

 Struggling in vain against the points, its strength fails, 

 it falls into the liquor below, which is strongly impreg- 

 nated with digestive solvent, and in less than an hour's 

 time nothing remains but the indestructible parts. 



To return to the bladderworts above mentioned, 

 although abundant moisture is essential to all the 

 family, some species manage to exist in damp soil or 

 moss. Others, again, like our native species, cannot 

 live unless immersed in water ; tropical and sub-tropical 

 bladderworts are sometimes hard put to it for a supply, 

 and take advantage of the stores laid up by certain 

 other plants for their own use. The Tillandsia, a 

 member of the Bromeliad or Pineapple family, comes 

 in very conveniently in times of drought, for in the 

 centre of its crown of leaves a cup is formed in which 

 water collects. Insects fall into this cup in numbers ; 

 probably the Tillandsia derives nourishment from their 

 decaying bodies, and the liquid stinks horribly ; but this 

 does not deter a species of bladderwort from taking up its 

 abode in the reservoir provided by this involuntary host, 

 where it thrives famously and gets lots of good fishing. 



I have had reason lately to believe that a plant not 

 hitherto suspected of carnivorous habits devours insects 

 by the hundred. This is the beautiful Himalayan 

 Rhododendron barbatum, or bearded rose-laurel, so 

 called because of the bristles which stand thickly along 

 the footstalks of the leaves. 1 In summer the buds, 

 which are formed for the following year's flowers and 



1 I allude to the hirsute variety of this rhododendron. There are 

 in cultivation varieties more or less destitute of hairs. 



