DROSERACEJE. (SUNDEW FAMILY.) 47 



ORDEK 17. DROSERACE^E. (SUNDEW FAMILY.) 



Bog-herbs, mostly glandular-haired, with regular hypogynous flowers, pen- 

 tamerous and withering-persistent calyx, corolla, and stamens, the anthers 

 Jixed by their middle and turned outwards, and a l-cetted pod with twice as 

 many separate styles or stigmas as there are parietal placentae. Calyx im- 

 bricated. Petals convolute. Seeds numerous, anatropous, with a short 

 and minute embryo at the base of the albumen. Leaves circinate in the 

 bud, i. e. rolled up from the apex to the base as in Ferns. (A small fam- 

 ily, of no known qualities, except a slight bitterness, &c. ; the Sundews 

 impart a purple stain to paper in which they are dried.) Only one genus 

 within our limits, viz. 



1. DROSERA, L. SUNDEW. 



Stamens 5. Styles 3, or sometimes 5, deeply 2-parted so that they are taken 

 for 6 or 10, slender; stigmatose above on the inner face. Pod globular or ob- 

 long, 3- (rarely 5-) valved, the valves bearing the numerous seeds on their mid- 

 dle for the whole length. Low perennials; the leaves clothed with i eddish 

 gland-bearing gristles, in our species all in a tuft at the base ; the naked scape 

 bearing the flowers in a 1 -sided raceme-like inflorescence, which nods at the un- 

 developed apex, so that the fresh-blown flower (wliich opens only in sunshine) 

 is always highest. (The glands of the leaves exude drops of a clear fluid, glit- 

 tering like dew-drops, whence the name, from Spo&cpos, dewy.) 



1. I>. rotundifolia, L. (ROUND-LEAVED SUNDEW.) Leaves orbicu- 

 lar, abruptly narrowed into the sheading hairy petioles; seeds spindle-shaped, 

 the coat loose and chaff-like ; flowers white, the parts sometimes in sixes. 

 Peat-bogs, common, especially northward. July -Aug. (Eu.) 



2. D. longifolia, L. Leaves spatulate-oblong , tapering into the long rather 

 erect naked petioles ; seeds oblong, with a rough close coat ; flowers white. 

 (D. intermedia, Hayne.) Bogs, chiefly northward and eastward. June- Aug. 

 Plant raised on its prolonged caudex when growing in water. (Eu.) 



3. D. linearis, Goldie. (SLENDER SUNDEW.) Leaves linear, obtuse, 

 the blade (2' -3' long, scarcely 2" wide) on naked erect . petioles about the same 

 length ; seeds oblong, -with a smooth and perfectly close coat ; flowers white. 

 Shore of Lake Superior. July. 



4. I>. fiiiformis, Raf. (THREAD-LEAVED SUNDEW.) Leaves very long 

 and filiform, erect, with no distinction between the blade and the stalk ; seeds 

 spindle-shaped; flowers numerous, purple rose-color (^' broad). TVet sand, 

 near the coast, Plymouth, Massachusetts, to New Jersey, Delaware, and south- 

 ward. Aug. Scapes 6' - 12' high ; and the singular leaves nearly as long. 



DION^A Muscf PULA, Ellis, the VENUS'S FLY-TRAP, so noted for the ex- 

 traordinary irritability of its leaves, closing forcibly at the touch, is a native 

 of the sandy savannas of the eastern part of North Carolina. It differs in sev- 

 eral respects from the character of the order given above ; the stamens being 15, 

 the styles united into one, and the seeds all at the base of the pod. 



