Plants That Feed on Insects. 17 



the fact itself which startles the attention by its seeming 

 reversal of natural laws. 



No better example of carnivorous plants could be taken 

 than Dioncea muscipula, or to use the common name, Venus's 

 Fly-trap. It is a species that is indigenous to North Carolina 

 and the adjacent parts of South Carolina, affecting sandy 

 bogs in the pine forests from April to June, and a represen- 

 tative of the Droseracece, or Sundew Family. One cannot 

 fail after once seeing it of becoming impressed with its 

 peculiar characteristics. It is a smooth perennial herb with 

 tufted radical leaves on broadly-winged, spatulate stems, the 

 limb orbicular, notched at both ends, and fringed on the 

 margins with strong bristles. From the centre of the rosette 

 of leaves proceeds at the proper time a scape or leafless stalk 

 which terminates in an umbel-like cyme of from eight to 

 ten white bracted flowers, each flower being one inch in 

 diameter. The roots are small and consist of two branches 

 each an inch in length springing from a bulbous enlarge- 

 ment. Like an epiphytic orchid, these plants can be grown 

 in well-drained damp moss without any soil, thus showing 

 that the roots probably serve for the absorption of water 

 solely. Three minute pointed processes or filaments, placed 

 triangularly, project from the upper surface of each lobe of 

 the*bi-lobed leaf, although cases are observed where four and 

 even ten filaments are found. These filaments are remark- 

 able for their extreme sensitiveness to touch, as shown not 

 only by their own movement, but by that of the lobes also. 

 Sharp, rigid projections, diminutive spikes as it were, stand 

 out from the leaf-margins, each of which being entered by a 

 bundle of spiral vessels. They are so arranged that when 

 the lobes close they interlock like the teeth of an old- 

 fashioned rat-trap. That considerable strength may be had, 

 the mid-rib of the leaf, on the lower side, is quite largely 

 developed. 



Minute glands, of a reddish or purplish color, thickly cover 

 the upper surface of the leaf, excepting towards the margins, 



