226 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



THE CRUEL Vl.k^T—( PIIYSI ANTHU.S ALBENS). 



BY Arthur Hahvey. 



I find that a specimen of this plant was exhiVjited to the Linntean 

 Society in 1867-68, to show the seed-vessel, and this is the only 

 reference to it I have seen in Scientific Societies' proceedings. It is 

 a little curious that both Mr. Chai'les Armstrong and myself should 

 have independently of each other prepared a paper about it for the 

 Canadian Institute. Mr. Armstrong's note, i-ead before our Biologi- 

 cal Section, dealt with the genus Asclepias of which it is a mem. 

 ber ; I shall not repeat liis statements, V>ut at once draw atten- 

 tion to the Physianthua alhens, of which I have a specimen for your 

 inspectioa The plant 1 have is two years old ; it is a climber which 

 covers a trellis about four feet squar-^. I keep it in a cellar in winter, 

 and set it in the open air in the end of May. It begins to flower in 

 August, and no sooner do the flowers open than moths, attracted by 

 the perfume, (which is not unlike that of the hyacinth, but not so 

 strong) visit the plant and find that excursion their last. The speci- 

 men befoie you shows a moth caught in the trap by its proboscis, and 

 you can see dozens of them in the same unfortunate " fix " through- 

 out the flowering sea.son. This moth is the '"Silver Y" {Noctia 

 gamma), and by far the greater number of moths caught are 

 of this kind. I have, howev^er, noticed an occa-sional cabbage 

 butterfly (pieris rapce) and a few wild Vjees and ants — the latter 

 caught by the leg. We will now investigate (1) the machinery which 

 catches the moths, and (2) the raison d'etre of the trap. 



The Physiantlms (bladder flower) is named from the shape of the 

 corolla, which swells near the base ioto a sort of bulb, enclosing the 

 following machinery — two ovaries and a jjistil, covered by a sort 

 of cap which fits upon them, around which are five eyes, from which 

 points five pairs of recurved jaws extend. Under the.se jaws are 

 two anthers, closely pressed between the jaws and the seed-ves.sel. 



