232 



THE AMEEICAN MONTHLY 



[December, 



mher. ■ 



although the body continuously un- 

 derwent violent contortions. In 

 due time the body assumed the 

 globular form, and attached itself 



Fig. 36. — The tail has become detached ; the body 

 remains in the cyst, which is completed. Figures 34 

 and 36 are magnified 100 times. Pig. 35 rather less, 



to the glass ; it then began to se- 

 crete a glutinous substance forming 

 several layers around the body. 

 During all this time the tail con- 

 tinued to lash violently about. While 

 the cyst was forming, the granular 

 contents of the body were seen to 

 move about in it, and this move- 

 ment continued from ten to twenty 

 minutes after the body was com- 

 pletely encysted. A few seconds 

 after the cyst commenced to form, 

 the tail, from its violent movements, 

 detached itself and swam away. 

 This act was performed by the 

 body of the tail going through 

 evolutions resembling a figure eiglit 

 and what seems remarkable, these 

 caudal appendages retain their vi- 

 tality for a considerable length of 

 time, indeed, may continue to be 

 active long after the contents of 

 the cyst have ceased to move. 



Plants in Florida. 



BY WILLIAM FABNELL. 



I have just read Mr. C. C. Mer- 

 riman's article on "Microscopical 

 Collections in Florida." I was 

 pleased to find that some one had 

 taken some interest in observing the 

 insectivorous plants of Florida. I 

 have lived in Jacksonville mors 



than three years, and have had 

 many a pleasant ramble in the 

 woods and forests, in the pine- 

 barrens, and among the swamps, and 

 have collected some of the plants 

 growing there. In one pine-barrens, 

 west of Jacksonville, the Drosera 

 hrevifolia is very plentiful in March 

 and April, and I have collected 

 it frequently. I have not met 

 with Drosera longifolia, but I be- 

 lieve they are much alike, the one 

 has a longer petiole to the leaf than 

 the other — with this exception I be- 

 lieve they resemble each other. I 

 have collected them at all times in 

 the growing season, and have some 

 now in my Herbarium. I think I 

 have seen them in all their stages 

 of growth, but I have never seen a 

 fly or any other insect caught in the 

 leaf. I believe I am not mistaken 

 in the plant. The description given 

 in the Journal answers exactly to 

 the plant I have collected. If Mr. 

 Merriman has seen a fly or any 

 other insect caught by them, may 

 I ask him to say so, and what kind 

 of insects are generally caught. 

 Do they assimilate the whole insect, 

 both soft and hard parts? I have 

 taken some interest in these plants, 

 and I shall be pleased to have an 

 account from an eye-witness, one 

 who has seen the fly in the trap. 

 With regard to the pitcher plant 

 Sarracenia variolarts, they are 

 plentiful near the swamps in the 

 neighborhood of Jacksonville, and 

 I have collected bundles of them, 

 and brought them home, and cut 

 many of them open, and examined 

 their contents — the mass of hard 

 and indigestible parts of insects — 

 and I have found them to be, the 

 legs, heads, and antennae of ants 

 and small beetles, and one day as I 

 opened one a large centipede ran out. 

 But below this mass of the debris 

 of insects, at the very bottom of the 

 tube, I have invariably found a 



