Droseras and Pinguiculas. 685 



flower and seen in the sunshine, with their bright green leaves 

 all a-glitter with their pearly studs. 



The structure of the flowers is well worthy of observation. 

 The ingenious and celebrated Dr. Lewis says that the 

 unctuous and glutinous juice is used, in some places, as an 

 ointment for chaps* and scalds, and that it is used by the 

 common people of the mountainous districts of Wales as a 

 powerful cathartic. This juice also seems to possess some 

 specific action on milk. Linnaeus says that it prevents either 

 the cream or the whey from separating from reindeer's milk ; 

 but that it decomposes cow's milk into curds and whey- 

 Lewis, however, says that " new milk poured upon the fresh 

 leaves on a strainer, and, after quick colature, set by for a day 



ralists' club, held at Coldstream, on September 19. 1832, the president, 

 Dr. Johnston (himself the author of a very interesting Flora of Berwick 

 upon Tweed, in 2 volumes), delivered an address, in which, among many 



observations of interest, are the following, appertaining to P. vulgaris : 



" There is much to learn of the habits and properties of our common 

 plants; and I may mention, as an illustration of this remark, the observ- 

 ation which was made on the butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) during 

 our excursion to Cheviot. It was then accidentally observed, that, when 

 specimens of this plant were somewhat rudely pulled up, the flower stalk, 

 previously erect, almost immediately began to bend itself backwards, and 

 formed a more or less perfect segment of a circle; and so, also, if a speci- 

 men is placed in the botanic box, you will in a short time find that the 

 leaves have curled themselves backwards, and now conceal the root by 

 their revolution. Now, the butterwort is a very common plant, yet I am 

 not aware that this fact of its irritability has been ever mentioned." 



In the English Flora, vol. i. p. 28, 29., it is quoted from Mr. Drummond, 

 that the leaves of Pinguicula lusitanica are permanent in winter, and those 

 of P. grandiflora are deciduous. It may be added to the description, that 

 those of P. vulgaris are deciduous also ; and that, when they have died back, 

 they leave the heart of the plant in the condition of a scaly bulb, in which 

 state it continues through the winter, and, I believe, is, during this period, 

 as devoid of living roots as of leaves. This economy is also possessed by 

 P. grandiflora, and, I suppose, by every species of Pinguicula. Frost will 

 throw this bulb on the surface of the soil, where it seems to be perfectly 

 unhurt by the frost's action ; and it is possible that, on the rising of water 

 during the winter season, in the plant's native places of growth, not a few 

 bulbs get transplanted from one spot of soil to another, and so have a fresh 

 place of growth almost annually. It may be here remarked, that three 

 aquatic plants, the 5tratiotes alb'ides, Calla palustris, and, I believe, the 

 illenyanthes trifoliata, are also increased and dispersed by deciduous 

 axillary bulb-like buds. From this economy in Pinguicula vulgaris, I think 

 it is needless to shelter the plant in a frame to protect it from frost ; but 

 its concentrated energies, designed for the next year's display, may be 

 preserved from all dissipation by the protection. The peduncle of P. 

 vulgaris is pubescent, and, I believe, that of P. grandiflora also : this is 

 almost inferable in English Flora, but is not clearly declared. — J. D. 



* Sir J. E. Smith, in his English Flora, vol. i. p. 29., saj's, under 

 P. vulgaris, " The viscid exudation of the leaves is reputed to be good for 

 the sore dugs of cows; whence the Yorkshire name of Yorkshire sanicle." 

 — J. D. 



