182 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



Chapter XII. 



BIONMA. 



In May, 1874, through the kindness of Dr. Wood, of 

 Wilmington? JS". C, I received over thirty fine plants 

 of Dioncea muscipula. They had been removed with 

 much care, and packed in such a manner that no plant 

 interfered with another, neither were they smothered 

 in a tight box, but slats were nailed across the top, 

 so that they could receive both light and air. They 

 reached me looking none the worse for their journey, 

 and began capturing prey the next day after their ar- 

 rival. The upper part of the leaf reminds me of the 

 open jaws of an old-fashioned steel-trap, and when any 

 insect alights on the inner surface of this leaf-trap, and 

 touches one or more of the six bristles on its surface, 

 if the leaf is healthy and vigorous it closes almost as 

 quickly as the steel -trap when anything touches its 

 spring. From the beginning of May until the last of 

 June I devoted a large share of each day to these 

 plants. I placed them in separate pots, and numbered 

 each plant, and kept a careful record of the closing of 

 each leaf over its prey, and the kind of insect it caught. 

 Mr. Darwin, in a letter of June, 1874, says : 



