TURF, BOG, AND MARSH PLANTS. 29 



Turf, bog, and marsh plants are found in 

 great variety in our own country, and they 

 abound in foreign lands. The sundew, (Drosera,) 

 of which we have three native species, is a 

 common inhabitant of spongy bogs, and may 

 serve as an example. Its leaves, disposed in a 

 circle around the root, are of a beautiful reddish 

 colour, and are covered with numerous long 

 hairs, standing erect, and when the sun shines 

 bright and warm, each hair is tipped with a 

 transparent globule of viscid matter. Let any 

 poor fiy or other insect alight upon one of these 

 leaves, and if not powerful enough immediately 

 to escape, it becomes entangled in the viscid 

 secretion, and then the hairs gradually bend 

 over it, and bind it down to die. In some of 

 the swamps of Carolina, in North America, is 

 found the Venus's fly-trap, (Dioncea mustipula,) 

 which presents a remarkable analogy to this 

 plant. Its leaves are furnished with a row of 

 teeth, or rather bristles, on each side, and so 

 irritable is the leaf, that if touched by any sub- 

 stance, or especially if an insect alights upon it, 

 the sides instantly collapse, the teeth lock one 

 into another, like the teeth of a rat-trap, 

 and cannot be separated again without force. 

 Another beautiful plant, which abounds on 

 moory ground, especially in the north of Eng- 

 land, is the cotton grass. The seeds of this 

 plant (which grow together in heads) are sur- 

 rounded as they ripen by a number of fine 

 hairs, of a pure white colour and beautiful 

 silky texture, so that, when ripe, the spike pre- 

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