Plants around Wilmingtonj N. C. 



125 



m 



result, it will require further observation and experiment 

 on the spot, to ascertain its nature and importance. It is 

 not to be supposed, however, that such food is necessary 

 to the existence of the plant, but like compost, may 

 increase its growth and vigor. But however obscure and 

 uncertain may be the final purpose of such a singular or- 

 ganization, if it were a problem to construct a plant with 

 reference to entrapping insects, I cannot conceive of a 

 form and organization better adapted to secure that end 

 than are found in the Dionaea muscipula. I therefore 

 deem it no credulous inference, that its leaves are con- 

 structed for that specific object^ whether insects subserve 

 the purpose of nourishment to the plant or not. It is no 

 objection to this view that they are subject to blind ac- 

 cident, and sometimes close upon straws as well as injects. 

 It would be a curious vegetable indeed, that had a faculty 

 of distinguishing bodies, and recoiled at the touch of one, 

 while it quietly submitted to violence from another. Such 

 capricious sensitiveness is not a property of the vegetable 



The spider's net is spread to ensnare flies, yet 

 it catches whatever falls upon it ; ^nd the ant lion is 

 roused from his hiding place by the fall of a pebble ; so 

 much are insects also, subject to the blindness of accident. 

 Therefore the web of the one, and the pitfall of the other 

 are not designed to catch insects! Nor is it in point to 

 refer to other plants of entirely different structure and 

 habit which sometimes entangle and imprison insects. 

 As well might we reason against a spider's web, because 

 a fly is drowned in a honey pot ; or against a steel trap 

 because some poor animal has lost its life in a cider barrel. 

 (15) Ar enar in diffusa^ ^\\\ Stellaria elongata, iV. I 

 formerly described this plant under NuttalFs name. I 

 have since discovered it with petals, which are linear. 



kingdom. 



VOL. I. PART II. 



17 



