556 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1867, 
TO WILLIAM M. CANBY. ? 
July 8, 1867. 
My pear Cansy,... I am charmed with what you 
say of Dionza, can confirm some of it, and believe all 
the rest. Never mind the anatomy of the leaf now — 
little promise from that; but do go on with experi- 
ments on feeding, and record them carefully, and pub- 
lish when ready. 
Iam going to send your letter to Darwin, who will 
be delighted, and will probably suggest experiments. 
He has an eminently suggestive mind. 
I suppose you know the slow way Drosera rotundi- 
folia catches flies, doubtless for same purpose, though 
it can absorb the juices only through its bristles. I 
always thought it took in only the gases disengaged 
by putrefaction. 
If you don’t know the trick of Drosera, which you 
should study, too, I will tell you, if you write to me at 
Sauquoit, Oneida County, New York. 
Savuguort, N. Y., July 17. 
T have here yours of 13th. 
If on leaf of Drosera rotundifolia, in good healthy 
condition, you put a small fly — somewhat crippled 
is surer — the sticky pellucid glands will hold him 
fast. By degrees (1 have never seen it under ten or 
twelve hours at least) some of the bristles outside, 
which have not touched the fly, will turn inward and 
bring their sticky tip against the insect; later still 
others and more external ones turn in, and so the fly 
is bound by many liliputian bands. As it putrefies, I 
wonder if the leaf merely takes its chance of getting 
some of the disengaged gases, or whether it reabsorbs 
1 William M. Canby, of Wilmington, Delaware. 
