194 



first book on this group, which has remained the only one available 

 in English for the past sixty-eight years. 



It is in a similar spirit that Dr. Lloyd has now summarized the 

 researches in this field. Karl von Goebel reviewed the work in 1891 

 in a section of his book, " Pflanzenbiologische Schilderungen." 

 Since then, various contributions have been made, including the 

 skillful researches of Lloyd on Utricidaria and the respective studies 

 of Vines and Hepburn on the digestive action of the pitcher fluids 

 of Nepenthes and Sarracenia. The glandular secretions of Drosera 

 were investigated in a similar manner by Okahara. The existence 

 of carnivorous fungi has recently been estabHshed, and new inter- 

 esting interpretations of the mechanisms of closure of the leaves of 

 Dionea and Aldrovanda have been made by Brown in the United 

 States and Ashida in Japan. 



There has long been a need for a comprehensive, modern treat- 

 ment of the carnivorous plants (Dr. Lloyd prefers this term to in- 

 sectivorous). The present volume seems entirely adequate. It 

 is a precise and scholarly work. The author has carried on in- 

 tensive investigations in this field since 1929, when he made his 

 first observations on the trap of Utricidaria gibba. The book con- 

 tains a great stock of his own experiments and verifications of the 

 results of others. For example, in the case of Roridula, Dr. Lloyd 

 is now definitely able to exclude this genus from the carnivorous 

 plants. Many of the plants, especially the Utriculariae, were studied 

 in their native habitats. Two trips to Africa and one to Australia 

 were made for this purpose. 



The text is divided into fourteen chapters, each for the most 

 part corresponding to a separate genus. The distribution of the 

 plants is unusual. They either fall into groups which are widely dis- 

 tributed, \i]>ie Drosera or Utricidaria, or else they exist as monotypic 

 or very local genera, as Cephalotus, Genlisa, Dionea, and others. 

 The chapters are arranged according to the increasing order of com- 

 plexity of the traps. Thus we find, in this rather ingenious system 

 of classification, that the passive, pitfall traps, as represented by 

 the pitchered leaves of Heliamphora and Sarracenia, are placed first. 

 Passing upward through the lobster pots, snares, fly-paper and 

 active, bear-trap devices, we come to the mouse trap, or most com- 

 plex type which includes such forms as Biovidaria, Utricularia, 

 and Polypompholyx. One chapter is devoted to the fungi that 



