CHAP, xiv INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS 73 



CHAPTER XIV 



INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS 



WE have seen in the preceding chapter how some plants, 

 departing from the simple habits of the ordinary green plant, 

 obtain their nourishment from other plants or even from 

 dead organic matter. There are still several of the larger 

 and more complex plants which capture and digest (to some 

 extent at least) small animals, such as insects, water-fleas, 

 etc., and are provided with special apparatus for the pur- 

 pose. We call them Carnivorous or Insectivorous Plants. 



I. Examine the leaf of the Common Pitcher Plant (Sar- 

 racenia purpurea) , and notice : 



1. The hollow, pitcher-shaped petiole. 



2. The small blade, forming the lip of the pitcher. 



3. The contents, both liquid and solid. 



4. The inner surface of the blade, i.e. the hairs clothing it, 



the direction in which they point, etc., 



5. That they stop abruptly at the lower limit of the blade, 



and that the surface of the inside of the pitcher is 

 perfectly smooth. 



6. How does this arrangement of hairs and smooth surface 



help to entrap an insect? Where would it alight 

 and what would happen to it ? Write out the story 

 of its capture. 



7. Make sketches of the whole leaf and of its parts. 



