Venue's 

 Victory 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



734 



3637. VENUS'S FLY-TRAP Remark- 

 able Mechanism for Securing Insect Food 

 Plant Almost without Roots Leaves Spring 

 upon Prey at a Touch. This plant [Dion&a 

 muscipula], commonly called Venus's fly- 

 trap, from the rapidity and force of its 

 movements, is one of the most wonderful 

 in the world. It is a member of the small 

 family of the Droseracecc, and is found only 

 in the eastern part of North Carolina, grow- 

 ing in damp situations. The roots are small; 

 those of a moderately fine plant which I ex- 

 amined consisted of two branches about one 

 inch in length, springing from a bulbous 

 enlargement. They probably serve, as in 

 the case of Drosera, solely for the absorption 

 of water; for a gardener, who has been very 

 successful in the cultivation of this plant, 

 grows it, like an epiphytic orchid, in well- 

 drained damp moss without any soil. . . . 

 The two lobes stand at rather less than a 

 right angle to each other. Three minute 

 pointed processes or filaments, placed tri- 

 angularly, project from the upper surfaces 

 of both; but I have seen two leaves with 

 four filaments on each side, and another 

 with only two. These filaments are remark- 

 able from their extreme sensitiveness to a 

 touch, as shown not by their own movement, 

 but by that of the lobes. The margins of the 

 leaf are prolonged into sharp, rigid projec- 

 tions which I will call spikes, into each of 

 which a bundle of spiral vessels enters. The 

 spikes stand in such a position that, when 

 the lobes close, they interlock like the teeth 

 of a rat-trap. DARWIN Insectivorous Plants, 

 ch. 13, p. 232. (A., 1000.) 



3638. VERACITY OF ANCIENT 

 TRAVELER VINDICATED The Sea of Sea- 

 weed. His ships, he [Himilco, a Cartha- 

 ginian explorer of the sixth century B. C.] 

 says, or at least Avienus says for him, were 

 " surrounded by seaweed." Where was he 

 when this took place? All that we can say 

 in answer to this question is that he sailed 

 through the Pillars of Hercules into the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and we know that few days' 

 sail in this direction would have brought 

 him to the " Mare di Sargasso," a sea which 

 has actually taken its name from the quan- 

 tity of seaweed (sargasso) growing in it. 

 Sir G. C. Lewis says, " The notion of remote 

 seas being impassable by ships, either from 

 their shoals, or from the obstacles to navi- 

 gation produced by the semifluid and muddy 

 properties of the water, frequently recurs 

 among the ancients"; and it is true, no 

 doubt, that statements of this kind are made 

 by many ancient writers, as, for instance, 

 by Herodotus, Plato, Scylax, and even Aris- 

 totle; but not one of these writers alludes 

 to " seaweed " as an impediment to naviga- 

 tion, and it can hardly be accidental that 

 the only voyager by whom this is referred 

 to was one who sailed on a course which, if 

 persevered in for a few days, would have 

 brought him to that which is even now 



known as the Sea of Seaweed. AVEBURY 

 Prehistoric Times, ch. 3, p. 59. (A., 1900.) 



3639. 



Unknown Sub- 



stance Found Covering the Sea Plates of 

 Ice Like Jellyfish. Round the island of 

 Thule Pytheas [a Greek explorer, third cen- 

 tury B. C., treated by Polybius, Strabo, and 

 later writers as a mendacious imposter] 

 saw a substance which was neither earth, 

 air, nor water, but a substance resembling 



meduSSB Or jellyfishes (irvevnovt ea\a.<T<rl<* COIKOS), 



which could neither be passed on foot nor 

 in ships. This passage, which has complete- 

 ly puzzled southern commentators, is justly 

 regarded by Professor Nilsson as a striking 

 evidence of Pytheas's veracity. For when 

 the Northern Ocean freezes, this does not 

 happen as in our ponds or lakes, but small, 

 separate plates of ice are formed, and as 

 soon as this process commences the fisher- 

 men hurry to the shore, lest they should be 

 caught in the ice, which for some time is 

 too thick to permit the passage of a boat, 

 yet too weak to support the weight of a 

 man. A very similar description is given 

 by Captain Lyon. " We came," he says, 

 " amongst young ice, in that state called 

 sludge, which resembles in appearance and 

 consistency a far better thing lemon ice. 

 From this we came to small round plates, of 

 about a foot in diameter, which have the 

 appearance of the scales of gigantic fishes." 

 Richardson also particularly mentions the 

 " circular plates of ice, six or eight inches 

 in diameter." These disks of ice tossed about 

 by the waves suggested to Professor Nilsson 

 himself, when he first saw them, the idea 

 of a crowd of medusae, and if we imagine a 

 southerner who had never before witnessed 

 such a phenomenon, and who on his return 

 home wished to describe it to his fellow 

 countrymen, it would have been difficult to 

 find an apter or more ingenious simile. It 

 is, moreover, one which would hardly have 

 occurred to any one who had not witnessed 

 the actual phenomenon. AVEBURY Prehis- 

 toric Times, ch. 3, p. 62. (A., 1900.) 



364O. VERIFICATION OF POPULAR 



BELIEF Naturalist's Observation Vampire 

 and Horse. The vampire-bat is often the 

 cause of much trouble, by biting the horses 

 on their withers. The injury is generally 

 not so much owing to the loss of blood as 

 to the inflammation which the pressure of 

 the saddle afterwards produces. The whole 

 circumstance has lately been doubted in 

 England; I was therefore fortunate in being 

 present when one . . . was actually 

 caught on a horse's back. We were bivou- 

 acking late one evening near Coquimbo, in 

 Chile, when my servant, noticing that one 

 of the horses was very restive, went to see 

 what was the matter, and fancying he could 

 distinguish something, suddenly put his 

 hand on the beast's withers and secured the 

 vampire. In the morning the spot where the 

 bite had been inflicted was easily distin- 



