24 Life and Immortality. 



lobes begin to separate as soon as the contraction of the 

 upper surface diminishes. 



Six known genera, Drosophyllu'm, Roridula, Byblis, 

 Drosera, Dionaea and Aldrovanda comprise the Droseraceae, 

 all of which capture insects. The first three genera effect 

 this purpose solely by the viscid fluid secreted from their 

 glands, and the last, like Dionaea, which has already been 

 described, through the closing of the blades of the leaf. In 

 these last two genera rapid movement makes up for the 

 loss of viscid secretion. But of all the genera none is more 

 interesting than the typical Sundews. 



Growing in poor peaty soil, and sometimes along the 

 borders of ponds where nothing else can grow, certain low 

 herbaceous plants, called Droseras, abound. So small and 

 apparently insignificant are they, that to the ordinary observer 

 they are almost unnoticed. But they have peculiarities of 

 structure and nature that readily distinguish them. Scattered 

 thickly over their leaves are reddish bristles or tentacles, each 

 surmounted by a gland, from which an extremely viscid fluid, 

 sparkling in the sunlight like dew, exudes in transparent 

 drops. Hence the common name of Sundew by which the 

 half-dozen species found in the United States east of the 

 Mississippi River are known. A one-sided raceme, whose 

 flowers open only when the sun shines, crowns a smooth 

 scape, which is devoid of tentacles. Drosera rotundifolia, 

 our commonest species, has a wide range, being indigenous 

 to both Europe and America. In the United States it extends 

 from New England to Florida and westward, and is occa- 

 sionally associated with Drosera longifolia, a form with long 

 strap-shaped leaves, but whose distribution is mostly restricted 

 to maritime regions, from Massachusetts to Florida. 



All of the species are remarkably similar in habits, captur- 

 ing insects, and digesting and absorbing the soft parts, a 

 circumstance which explains how these plants can flourish 

 in an extremely poor soil where mosses, which depend 

 almost entirely upon the atmosphere for their nourishment, 



