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bend toward the prisoner till their glands touch his body, reaching 
after him from all sides. few moments later, the leaf itself 
rolls up and encloses the captive. The more the fly struggles, 
the more it excites the living hairs to grasp it, while the sticky 
fluid pours from the red glands till the little legs and wings are 
so tied and plastered down that they can strive no longer. The 
gum stops up the tiny holes in the insects sides through which 
it breathes, and it soon dies, strangled and exhausted. After 
the insect has been lured, secured and killed, the next thing in 
order is the banquet. The fluid, which has all this time been 
flowing from the ruby glands, continues to flow, but becomes 
somewhat changed in its nature. Chemists who have examined 
the fluid at this point have found that it is very similar to pepsin 
m 
leaf, fii glands bend over it at first, but soon find out their mis- 
take and let go again. Darwin experimented on the leaves with 
tiny scraps of raw beef, and he found that some which had 
feasted too heartily suffered apparently the pangs of acute dys- 
pepsia. They changed color, refused all food, grew limp and 
dejected, and died miserably. Is not this wild flower growing 
out in the open, with no covering over its frail little head but 
the blue heavens, more wonderful than any machine ever in- 
vented by man? 
There are a few wild flowers extremely poisonous in their 
effects on the majority of persons who come in contact with them; 
still their number is so insignificant in proportion to all the other 
flowers that they ought not to prejudice any one against the 
other wild flowers. Besides, in most cases they can be easily 
detected from the harmless flowers by some tell-tale detail, as 
for instance the poision hemlock may be distinguished from some 
of its harmless cousins by the claret-colored blotches on its large 
smooth stalks, or by a very offensive “mousy” odor, which its 
leaves emit when cut or bruised. Our real wild enemy, the 
poison-ivy, is exceedingly common everywhere. It thrives on 
rocks, along stone walls, in fence corners, or clambers up tree 
