SOME REMARKABLE WAYS OF PLANTS 163 



" The Sensitive Plant was the earliest 

 Upgathered into the bosom of rest ; 

 A sweet child, weary of its delight, 

 The feeblest and yet the favourite, 

 Cradled within the embrace of night." l 



Another kind is marked by another sort of sensitive- 

 ness, by what looks very 

 much like sense. There 

 are plants which actually 

 feed on solid animal-food. 

 This is a remarkable ex- 

 ception. 



In the chapters on 

 Roots and Leaves we 

 saw that " vegetables " in 

 general, using the word 

 in its widest sense, are 

 able only to take in liquid 

 food, or food in the form 

 of gases. Not one of 

 them could receive or 

 digest anything solid. 

 Yet here we find that 

 rule apparently broken. 



No less than five hun- 

 dred kinds are known, in various parts of the world, 

 which more or less live on animal-food, taken in the 

 solid form. They are often called "Insectivorous 

 Plants," because they subsist largely on insects; and 

 also sometimes they are described as " Flesh-eating." 



Such food is captured by them in many ways, and 

 only two or three can be mentioned here. 



1 Shelley. 

 M 



BLADDERWORT. 



