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Prof. ASA GRAY, of Harvard College, in speaking of 

 the flowers about us and those found during the morning, 

 alluded to plants having peculiar properties or apti- 

 tudes, and particularly treated of the so-called pitcher- 

 plant (/Sarracenia purpurea). One will ask what these 

 pitchers are for, and looking into them we shall find 

 a little dirty water and few or many flies or other insects 

 drowned in it; now if we notice this "sun-dew" (Dro- 

 sera), we shall see that flies, when they alight on the 

 leaf, are caught and held fast by the clear drops which 

 tip every one of the bristles that beset its upper surface. 

 And, as if to make sure of this, within a few hours the 

 surrounding bristles, which the fly had not touched, bend 

 in one by one, and bring their sticky glands into contact 

 with the fly, thus multiplying the bands that held him. 

 Soon the leaf itself is seen to close round the insect, just 

 as a man might close his hand, say upon a mouse. Now, 

 before we make up our mind that this capture is acci- 

 dental and meaningless, it is as well to consider why flies 

 are more expeditiously caught by a near relative of the 

 sundew, viz., the Venus-fly trap (Dioncea), of North 

 Carolina. Here, when the fly alights on the leaf the two 

 sides come together with a sudden motion ; and the 

 bristles, which are all on the margin, and destitute of 

 sticky glands, by their intercrossing prevent escape, until 

 the sides of the trap have closed down firmly upon the 

 imprisoned insect. 



Returning now to our pitcher-plant, it is naturally 

 asked, What attracts the flies that are so copiously drowned 

 in the water at the bottom? In this our northern species 

 we know of no attraction beyond the water itself. But 

 in at least one of the southern species (/Sarracenia flava) 

 a correspondent informs us that he has noticed a sweetish 

 secretion just over the top of the tube, which is eagerly 



