Plants That Feed on Insects. 17 
the fact itself which startles the attention by its seeming 
reversal of natural laws. 
No better example of carnivorous plants could be taken 
than Dionea muscipula, or to use the common name, Venus’s 
Fly-trap. Itis a species that is indigenous to North Carolina 
and the adjacent parts of South Carolina, affecting sandy 
bogs in the pine forests from April to June, and a represen- 
tative of the Droserace@, or Sundew Family. One cannot 
fail after once seeing it of becoming impressed with its 
peculiar characteristics. ° It is a smooth perennial herb with 
tufted radical leaves on broadly-winged, spatulate stems, the 
limb orbicular, notched at both ends, and fringed on the 
margins with strong bristles. From the centre of the rosette 
of leaves proceeds at the proper time a scape or leafless stalk 
which terminates in an umbel-like cyme of from eight to 
ten white bracted flowers, each flower being one inch in 
diameter. The roots are small and consist of two branches 
each an inch in length springing from a bulbous enlarge- 
ment. Like an epiphytic orchid, these plants can be grown 
in well-drained damp moss without any soil, thus showing 
that the roots probably serve for the absorption of water 
‘solely. Three minute pointed processes or filaments, placed 
triangularly, project from the upper surface of each lobe of 
the bi-lobed leaf, although cases are observed where four and 
even ten filamients are found. These filaments are remark- 
able for their extreme sensitiveness to touch, as shown not 
only by their own movement, but by that of the lobes also. 
Sharp, rigid projections, diminutive spikes as it were, stand 
out from the leaf-margins, each of which being entered by a 
bundle of spiral vessels. They are so arranged that when 
the lobes close they interlock like the teeth of an old- 
fashioned rat-trap. That considerable strength may be had, 
the mid-rib of the leaf, on the lower side, is quite largely 
developed. 
Minute glands, of a reddish or purplish color, thickly cover 
the upper surface of the leaf, excepting towards the margins, 
