CHAPTER III 



OTHER INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS DIFFICULTIES AND 

 CRITICISMS 



Fly- Traps (Dionaa and Aldrovanda) Sundews and Birdlime 

 Traps Butter-worts Sundews proper (Drosera) Details, 

 Functional and Structural Digestion Movements Ab- 

 sorption Utility Other Insectivorous Plants Legends 

 Difficulties Further Difficulties and Criticisms Direction 

 of further Investigation ; Possible Compromise. 



Fly-Traps (Dionaea). Besides those insectivorous plants 

 which we have already studied under the general title of 

 "pitchers," there are others more active in insect-catching, 

 which we may call " fly-traps." Of these the most famous, 

 cynically nicknamed " Venus's Fly-Trap " {Dioncea musci- 

 pula), grows in damp places in the east of North America, 

 occurring in very local distribution in North and South 

 Carolina, especially near the town of Wilmington. It 

 was the first of the insectivorous plants to attract atten- 

 tion, for in 1768 Ellis, a London merchant, but a shrewd 

 naturalist withal, who discerned the animal nature of coral, 

 sent a description of the plant to Linnaeus, who in his 

 enthusiasm called it " miraculum natures. ." But he sup- 

 posed that the insects were captured accidentally, and 

 subsequently allowed to escape. 



The Venus Fly-Trap, like its allies the Sundews, grows 

 on the wet moorland. A circle of more or less prostrate 

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