155 



Fixed in the sphagnum is a wonderful colony of the spatu- 

 late leaved sun dew (Drosera intermedia) In May and June it 

 fairly carpets the wet sand and each ruby tentacle is covered 

 with a diamond drop that sparkles in the light of the morning 

 sun. Later in the day they are not so beautiful or active as the 

 heat seems to absorb somewhat the moisture accumulated dur- 

 ing the night. In the late afternoon and evening they are again 

 more active. In July their delicate white flowers begin to open, 

 adding pearls to the plant's jeweled coronal. In August the seeds 

 mature. The vernation of the flower stalk is entirely circinate, 

 that of the leaves not so perfectly so. This Drosera often repro- 

 duces a new plant from a leaf of the old. Early in the season at 

 the time of the maximum growth, when there is plenty of mois- 

 ture, they are often quite tall 2| to 3| inches — the petioles 2 to 

 3 inches long. The pulvinus is very active at times in lifting and 

 lowering the leaves; much more so than in any Drosera rotundi- 

 folia I have ever seen. The glandular hairs are 4-5 mm. the 

 leaves themselves half an' inch in length and quite broad above 

 the centre of the leaf. 



Only in two places have I found the Drosera, both on the 

 north beach of two adjacent ponds — growing under practically 

 the same conditions, i.e. in the wet, frequently submerged 

 coarse sand in or near the Sphagnum and sheltered by the 

 bushes on the north. Unless so protected the two colonies would 

 be buried deep in the dry sand, brought in, in winter, by the 

 strong winds from the sea. This sand now piles up in small dunes 

 beyond the bushes. 



How did this isolated form come here? Is it endemic — a relic 

 left by the reduction of the area of a favorable habitat when the 

 two adjacent ponds were originally part of one vast cut off from 

 the sea? And when Drosera intermedia grew along the entire 

 north shore of this cut off? At all events the actual localization 

 seems the result of a reduction of the generic area and a narrow- 

 ing of the specific area, now the only refuge in the immediate 

 vicinity where these highly organized moisture loving plants can 

 grow. Although the coarse sand would seem far from an ideal 

 soil, it retains the moisture better at times when the beach is not 

 submerged. Noting Drosera's delicacy and beauty, it is difficult 

 to realize its insect catching activities. In June I observed hun- 

 dreds of these plants. Some were working together; and often 

 as many as five or six leaves of the same plant pragmatically 



