BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
turia of Pennsylvanian and Ohio specimens 
About two hundred species 
for ooh subscribers as have not hitherto 
had North American plants from the Unio. 
«The amount of subscription for the above 
is 11 florins, or 22s. sterling, per centuria, 
or a hundred specimens; and the distribu- 
tion will take place after that of the Egyp- 
tian and Arabian plants has terminated. 
“In addition, we have been commissioned 
by the widow of the late Dr. Frank, to offer 
his Herbarium to the friends of botanical 
science. It contains at least from five 
thousand to six thousand species, consist- 
ing of fifteen thousand individual speci- 
mens, of which more than four thousand 
species are German or Swiss; among them 
are also the scarcest ones from the French 
Alps, particularly from the South and from 
énées. There are also more than 
three hundred North American species, 
gathered by himself, and about one thou- 
sand species derived from other parts of 
the globe, and which have been cultivated 
in Europe." 
i STEUDEL & HOCHSTETTER. 
Dion#A MUSCIPULA (the Carolina 
Fly-Trap). This interesting plant, now 
common in all the gardens of the curious, 
but long supposed to be confined in its 
native country to almost a single habitat, 
is thus mentioned by Mr. M. A. Curtis, in 
his “Enumeration of the plants growing 
spontaneously around Wilmington, in 
North Carolina," ** The Dionea muscipula 
is found as far North as Newbern, North 
Carolina, and from the mouth of Cape Fear 
River nearly to Fayetteville. Elliott says, 
on the authority of General Pinckney, that 
it grows along the lower branches of the 
Santee, in South Carolina, and I think it 
is not improbable that it inhabits the Sa- 
vannahs more or less abundantly from the 
latter place to Newbern. It is found in 
great plenty for many miles around Wil- 
mington, in every direction. 
I venture a short notice of this interesting 
and curious plant, not being aware that any 
popular description of it has been published 
5 
in this country. The leaf, which is the only 
remarkable part, springs from. the root, 
spreading upon the ground, or at a little 
elevation above it. It is composed of a 
petiole or stem with broad margins, like 
the leaf of the orange-tree, two to four 
inches long, which, at the end, suddenly 
expands into a thick and somewhat rigid 
leaf, the two sides of which are semicircu- 
lar, about two-thirds of an inch across, and 
fringed around their edges with somewhat 
rigid ciliz, or long hairs, like eye-lashes, 
The leaf, indeed, may be very aptly compared 
to two upper eye-lids, joined at their bases, 
Each portion of the leaf is a little concave 
on the inner side, where are placed three 
delicate, hair-like organs, in such an order 
that an insect can hardly traverse it, with- 
out interfering with one of them, when the 
two sides suddenly collapse and inclose the 
prey, with a force surpassing an insect’s 
attempts to escape. The fringe or hairs 
of the opposite sides of the leaf interlace, 
like the fingers of the two hands, clasped 
together. The sensitiveness resides only 
in these hair-like processes on the inside, 
as the leaf may be touched or pressed in 
any other part, without sensible effects. 
The little prisoner is not crushed and sud- 
denly destroyed, as is sometimes supposed, 
for I have often liberated captive flies and 
spiders, which sped away as fast as fear or 
joy could hasten them. At other times, I 
have found them enveloped in a fluid of 
mucilaginous consistence, which seems to 
act as a solvent, the insects being more or 
less consumed in it. This circumstance 
has suggested the possibility of the insects 
being made subservient to the nourishment 
of the plant, through an apparatus of ab- 
sorbent vessels in the leaves. But as I 
have not examined sufficiently to pronounce . 
on the universality of this result, it will 
require further observation and experiment 
on the spot, to ascertain its nature and im- 
portance. It is not to be' supposed, how- 
ever, that such food is necessary to: the 
existence of the plant, though, like comp 
it may increase its growth and vigour. But 
however obscure and uncertain may be the 
final purpose of such a singular organiza- : 
