PINGUICULA LUTEA.—YELLOW BUTTERWORT. gt 
very slow. It is simply the incurving of the leaf over the insects, 
seeds, or other objects caught; and occupied about fifteen hours 
under Mr. Darwin's observation. It thus appears that the 
motion has no direct relation to insect-catching, for they are 
caught and held long before by the viscid glands; but Mr. 
Darwin found that the greater the number of glands that 
could apply their secretions to the insects caught, the more 
rapidly did digestion go on, and this motion, therefore, appears 
rather as an aid in nutrition than as a mere insect-catching 
power as in some plants. Mr. Darwin closes a lengthy but 
highly interesting paper on his experiences with the common 
Pingicula by remarking, “we may therefore conclude that with 
its small roots it is not only supported to a large extent by the 
extraordinary number of insects which it habitually captures, but 
likewise draws some nourishment from the pollen, leaves, and 
seeds of other plants, which often adhere to its leaves. It is 
therefore partly a vegetable as well as an animal feeder.” It is 
well worth while to inform ourselves of these wonderful dis- 
coveries of Mr. Darwin in connection with the old world plants, 
because it is more than likely that some highly interesting obser- 
vations may be made on other species, of which there are some 
half a dozen natives of the United States, and especially on the 
one we have now before us, the “Yellow Butterwort.” Its 
leaves are also clammy-pubescent; and, as will be seen by our 
plate, it has the remarkably disproportionate roots to leaves so 
specially noted by Mr. Darwin as a reason why the leaves 
should aid in the direct nutrition of the plant. In this way it 
may yet make a history for itself, towards which, so far, it has 
done little. All that it has yet contributed is the fact, that it is 
one of the pretty spring-flowers which give such a charm to the 
early season of the southern United States. Mr. A. P. Garber 
tells us in a sketch of early southern flowers, in the first volume 
of the “Botanical Gazette,’ that it was one of the first that 
greeted him on landing at Palatka, Florida, on the 16th of Feb- 
ruary; and Mrs. Mary Treat, to whom, through Professor Sar- 
