Oct. 8, 1874] 



NA TURE 



463 



spectively were 300,000/. and 250,000/. The largest item 

 of expenditure was to Fellows of Colleges — Oxford, 

 102,000/. ; Cambridge, 103,000/. The smallest item was 

 for scientific institutions, being under 2,000/. for each 

 University. Mr. Parker remarked that this was hardly 

 what might have been expected by the general public. A 

 satirical person might even suggest as an improvement 

 the reversal of the order. Seriously, the distribution came 

 to this. Taking the residents in the University at about 

 400 graduates and 1,400 undergraduates, almost all the 

 former and about half the latter received substantial aid 

 from endowments. Mr. Parker examined various schemes 

 which liad been put forward, and expressed an opinion 

 that, provided the central life were maintained with 

 vigour, it was much to be desired that the Universities 

 should occupy themselves with extending their connec- 

 tions throughout the country. Looking to their examina- 

 tions in every quarter, 44,000/. at Oxford or 33,000/. at 

 Cambridge was by no means excessive for Scholarships 

 and Exhibitions. Some Exhibitions should be separately 

 competed for by the unattached students who were now 

 pursuing their studies at the Universities with so much 

 success and at so little expense — in many cases under 

 50/. a year. To carry out needed reforms some central 

 guidance would be necessary, cither from a body ap- 

 pointed by the Universities themselves or, more probably, 

 from a Parhamentary Executive Commission. But if such 

 a Commission should be appointed, it was desirable the 

 public should understand that it had not to deal with a 

 retrograde, obstinate, or lethargic corporation, but to co- 

 operate with the Universities and Colleges. Oxford and 

 Cambridge, in respect of learning, had not held their own 

 against the great German Universities, but a change had 

 begun, and in Mr. Parker's opinion they were yearly com- 

 manding more respect throughout Europe. 



In the discussion which followed, the Hon. G. Brodrick 

 deprecated an attempt to subsidise, at the expense of 

 Oxford and Cambridge, wealthy towns which, had they 

 existed in America, would long ago have provided Uni- 

 versities of their own. On no account should resources 

 which ought to be concentrated upon Oxford be frittered 

 away upon the great cities of England and Scotland. 



Sir G. Campbell said that in his belief it was 

 these endowments which seemed to render reform 

 impossible. They acted as an immense bribe to a con- 

 tinuance of the old monkish form of education, which 

 he believed to bo a mere superstition. He believed that 

 the devotion of the time and talent of our youth to the 

 learning of the regular verbs of Greek and Latin, and even 

 the higher mathematics, Avas a gymnastic, and not a 

 practical education. If endowments were to be continued, 

 they must be taken in hand and, apart from the wills of 

 founders, devoted to those branches of education which 

 experience showed to be really useful and practical. 



An important paper On the place of technical education 

 was presented to the Section by Mr. B. Samuelson, M.P. 

 This we shall give on a future occasion. 



PITCHER-PLANT INSECTS* 



'TTIIR insect-catching powers of these curious pl.ints, the Fly- 

 •^ traps (Dion?-'a), the Sundeivs (Drosera), and the Trumpet- 

 leaves (Sarracenia), Iiave always attracted the attention of the 

 curious, but renewed interest has been awakened in them by 

 virUte of the interesting experiments and observations on their 

 structure, habit, and function, th.it have lately been recorded, 

 and especially by the summing up of these observations in some 

 charming papers by Prof. Asa Gray, which recently appeared in 

 the A'alijt! and the N'c-zv York Tribune under the title of " In- 

 sectivorous Plants." 



Through the courtesy of Dr. J. IT. MeUichamp, of Bluffton, 

 and of II. W. Ravenel, of Aiken, S.C, who have sent me 

 abundant material, I am able to submit the following notes of 



■ A paper read by Prof. C. V. Riley, of St. Louis, Mo., before llic Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science, August 1874. 



an entomological bearing on the Spotted Trumjiet-leaf (Sarra- 

 cenia variolaris), which must henceforth rank with the plants of 

 the other genera mentioned as a consummate insect catcher and 

 devourer. 



The leaf of Sarracenia is, briefly, a trumpet-shaped tube with 

 an arched lid, covering, more or less completely, the mouth. 

 The inner surface, from the mouth to about midway down the 

 funnel, is covered with a compact decurved pubescence which is 

 perfectly smooth and velvety to the touch, especially as the finger 

 passes downward. From midway it is beset mth retrorse 

 bristles, which gradually increase in size till within a short dis- 

 tance of the bottom, where tliey suddenly cease, and the surface 

 is smooth. There are also similar bristles under the lid. Run- 

 ning up the front of the trumpet is a broad wing with a hardened 

 emarginate border, parting at the top and extending around the 

 rim of the pitcher. Along this border, as Dr. MeUichamp dis- 

 covered, but especially for a short distance inside the mouth, and 

 less conspicuously inside the lid, there exude drops of a sweet- 

 ened, viscid fluid, which, as the leaf matures, is replaced by a 

 white, papery, tasteless, or but slighUy sweetened sediment or 

 efflorescence ; while at the smooth bottom of the pitcher is 

 secreted a limpid fluid possessing toxic or inebriating qualities. 



The insects which meet their death in this fluid are numerous 

 and of all orders. Ants are the principal victims, and the 

 acidulous properties which their decomposing bodies give to tlie 

 liquid doubtless render it all the more potent as a solvent. 

 Scarcely any other Hymenoptera are found in the rotting mass, 

 and it is an interesting fact that Dr. MeUichamp never found the 

 little nectar-loving bee or otlier Mellifera about the plants. On 

 one occasion only have I found in the pitcher the recognisable 

 remains of a Bombus, and on one occasion only has he found 

 the honey-bee captured. Species belonging to aU the other 

 orders are captured, and among the other species that I have 

 most commonly met with, wliich, from the toughness of their 

 chitinous integument, resist disorganisation and remain recog- 

 nisable, may be mentioned AsaJ>hcs memuoiiius and Euryomia 

 tndanchoHca among Coleoptera, Rentatoina Iiigcns and Orsilochus 

 variabilis, var. complicatus, among Heteroptera ; while kyatids, 

 locusts, crickets, cockroaches, flies, moths, and even butterflies, 

 and some Arachnida and Myriapoda, in a more or less irrecog- 

 nisahle condition, frequently help to swell the unsavoury mass. 



But while these insects are decoyed and macerated in order, 

 as we may naturally infer, to help to support the destroyer, there 

 are, nevertheless, two species which are proof against its siren 

 influences, and which, in turn, oblige it either directly or in- 

 directly to support them. 



The first is Xanihoptera semicrocea Guen., a little glossy moth, 

 which may properly be called the Sarracenia Moth. It is strikingly 

 marked with grey-black and straw-yellow, the colours being 

 sharply separated across the shoiflders and the middle of the front 

 wings. This little moth walks with perfect impunity over the 

 inner surface of the pitcher, wliich proves so treacherous to so 

 many other insects. It is frequently found in pairs within the 

 pitchers soon after these open, in the early part of the season or 

 about the end of April. Tlie female lays her eggs singly, near 

 the mouth of the pitcher, and the young larva, from the moment 

 of hatching, spins for itself a carpet of silk and very soon closes 

 up the mouth by drawing the rims together and covering them 

 with a delicate, gossamer-like web, which effectually debars all 

 small outside intruders. It then frets the leaf within, commencing 

 under the hood and feeding downward on the cellular tissue, 

 leaving only the epidermis. As it proceeds the lower part of 

 the pitcher above the putrescent insect collection becomes packed 

 with ochreous excrementitious droppings, and by the time the 

 worm has attained its fuU size the pitcher above these droppings 

 generally collapses. This worm when full grown is beautifuUy 

 banded transversely with white and purple or lake red, which 

 Dr. MeUichamp poetically likens in brightness to the Tyrian 

 dye. It is furthermore characterised by rows of tubercles, which 

 are especially prominent on the four larger legless joints. It is 

 a half looper, having but six prolegs, and keeps up, in travelling, 

 a constant restless, waving motion of the head and thoracic 

 joints, recalling /((;-(T/)'iM a^'ilnits. The chrysalis is formed in a 

 very slight cocoon, usually just above or within the packed ex- 

 crement. The species, kindly determined by Mr. A. R. Grote, 

 was many years ago figured by Abbott, who found it feeding on 

 Sarratciiia variolaris, in Georgia. Guenee's descriptions were 

 made from these figures, for which reason I append [the more 

 technical matter relating to the species is here omitted] a few 

 descriptive notes from the living materi.il. It feeds alike on 

 S. variolaris and S. Jlava, and there are two broods each year, 



