74 PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 



disagreeable, tell us this is an unfounded notion which has been 

 circulated within the last thirty years ; and that the genus is 

 named for an early botanist, Liberatus Sabbatia. 



VENUS'S FLY-TRAP. (Plate XXXII.) 

 Dioncea muscipula. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Sundew. White. Scentless. Wilmington, N. C. Spring. 



Flowers: growing on a scape in a flat-topped umbel. Calyx : of five 

 sepals. Corolla : of five, obcordate petals. Stamens : fifteen. Pistil : one ; 

 stigma, fringed and lobed. Leaves : long and narrow ; terminated by a bristly 

 bordered trap ; green or crimson inside. 



Even the flowers must crane their necks and gaze in wonder 

 at the uncanny actions of the Venus's fly-trap : a creature of 

 most cunning devices. The trap-like appendage that termi- 

 nates each leaf is set, so to speak, when the sun shines. Its 

 brilliant lining piques the curiosity of small insects, which, un- 

 conscious of the wise maxim, to look with one's eyes and not 

 with one's fingers, attempt to investigate for themselves. No 

 sooner does one arrive and brush against the bristles that line 

 the edge of the trap, than the latter closes and crushes the life 

 out of the intruder. In adroitness it can well vie with the 

 spider. The poor guileless fly is then prepared for digestion by 

 a secretion from minute glands that line the inner surface of 

 the leaves. His end is in assimilation and affording nourish- 

 ment to the plant. 



Should the fly by any chance effect an escape, the trap would 

 then innocently open and again await its opportunity. 



ROUND-LEAVED SUNDEW. 



Drdsera rotundifblta. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Sundew. White. Scentless. Northern and eastern. Midsummer. 



Flowers : small , growing on one side of a raceme like cluster at the end of a 

 naked scape that uncoils as the flowers expand. Calyx : of five sepals. 

 Corolla: of five petals. Stamens : five to fifteen. Pistil : one, with a deeply 

 three or five parted style. Leaves: rounded; provided with leafstalks; the 

 upper surface rough and sticky. The edge of the leaf fringed with reddish 

 bristles. 



When the sun shines upon the leaves of this little bog herb 



