flow PLANTS DRINK. 71 



and Asiatic marsh-plants. The leaves of teasel 

 grow opposite one another, joining the stem at 

 the base, so as to form between them a sort of 

 cup or basin, which will hold water. If you 

 look close into this water you will find that it 

 is often full of dead midges and ants ; and ths 

 plant puts forth long strings of living protoplasm 

 into the water, which suck up the decaying 

 juices of these insects, k A use them for the 

 manufacture of more protoplasm and chlorophyll. 

 In this case, water is used both as a trap and as 

 a solvent; the insects are first drowned in the 

 moat, and then allowed to decay and digest 

 themselves in it. 



Teasel, however, is but a simple example of 

 this method of insect-catching. Several American 

 marsh-dwellers, collectively known as pitcher- 

 plants, carry the same device a great deal 

 further. They are far more advanced and 

 developed water-trap setters. The Canadian 

 side-saddle plant allures insects into its vase- 

 shaped leaves, which are filled with sugar and 

 water. This is just the same plan which we 

 ourselves employ to catch flies when we trap 

 them in a glass vessel by means of a sweetened 

 and sticky liquid. The pitchers are formed by 

 leaves which join at the edges; they are at- 

 tractively coloured, so as to allure the flies ; and 

 they secrete on their walls a honeyed liquid, 

 which entices the victim to venture further and 

 further down the fatal path. But the inner sides 

 of the vase are set with stiff downward -i)ointing 

 hairs, which make it easy to go on, but im- 

 possible to crawl back again. So the flies creep 



