

TORREYA 



Vol. 29 No. 4 



july-Aui^aist, 1929 



The Trap of Utricularia 



R. Darnley Gibbs 



'If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a 

 better mouse-trap than his neighbour, though he build his house in the 

 woods the world will make a beaten path to his door.' 



— Attributed to Emerson. 



Carnivorous animals capture their prey by swiftness or by 

 cunning. While most rely upon speed others are constrained to set 

 traps for the reception of the victim. The Ant-lion {Myrmeleon) 

 with its sand-pit, many Spiders with their webs and Man are ex- 

 amples. The last may be termed a facultative trap-setter and the 

 victim may or may not serve as food. 



Plants on the other hand lead sedentary lives and are not as a 

 rule adapted to a diet of flesh. There are, however, exceptions — 

 plants that feed upon animals — a fact that has moved someone, 

 somewhere, to poetry : 



'What's this I hear 



About the new Carnivora? 



Can little plants 



Eat bugs and ants 



And gnats and flies? 



A sort of retrograding; 



Surely the fare 



Of flowers is air, 



Or sunshine sweet : 



They shouldn't eat, 



Or do aught so degrading.' 



'Bugs and ants and gnats and flies,' mosquito larvae, oligochaete 

 worms, copepods and soforth are acceptable to these retrogrades. 

 In all cases the plant — be it DrosopJiylhim, the 'flypaper' plant of 

 Portugal, or Dioiaca of South Carolina with its wonderful 'steel- 



