Geology and Natural EMistory. 149 
We can only here add that, in its English form, the small folio 
is brought down to the small quarto, or rather to something 
between quarto and octavo (i. e., the volume is 10X7X2 inches), 
i ement. It is brought 
out under the cordial codperation of the original authors, and is 
published, by the Longmans, for 523 shillings .h 
9. Fly-caiching in Sarracenia.—In the English edition of Le 
Maout and Decaisne’s System of Botany, noticed above, I find the 
following note by the editor. There is nothing answering to it in 
the original French. 
“ Sarracenia rubra has been vaunted in Canada as a specific 
against small-pox, but has not proved to be such. The pitcher- 
shaped leaves are effective insect-traps; a sugary excretion exudes 
at the mouth of the pitcher and attracts the insects, which descend 
lower in the tube, where they meet with a belt of reflexed hairs, 
which facilitate their descent into a watery fluid that fills the bot- 
ro of Ne cavity, and at the same time prevents their egress.” 
p. 214. 
tee Og 
We observed then and since, that the a which fills the bottom 
of the narrow tube, and in which flies are drowned, is a secretion ; 
it distils in drops from the imer surface of the young pitcher, 
: +s ° rniven 
es. 
recently, and after a summer temperature was established, that 
any traces of the “sugary excretion” over the orifice could be 
detected. This made its appearance at first in the form of minute 
early globules, distinctly visible only under a lens; at length it 
orms flattened drops, and even patches, distinctly sweetish to the 
taste and viscid to the touch. I have not found any of this exere- 
tion at the orifice of the pitchers of S. pumpured, Nor in S. vario- 
nieign but I have not had good materials for observation In the lat- 
er case, 
That the insects which abundantly fall or find their way into 
Surrucenia pitchers do not generally escape, but die and decom- 
