202 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



raw beef low down in the tube. In some cases in two 

 hours' time the meat was surrounded by a copious se- 

 cretion, the same as in pinguicula, and it looked white 

 and was quite tender ; but I found the leaves varied 

 considerably in the power of digestion : in some cases, 

 at the end of two hours, the meat had not changed 

 color, and was not acted upon by the secretion, but re- 

 mained quite dry. From some of the leaves I cut a 

 small slice from near the base of the tube, and inserted 

 the meat, so as to watch the effect produced by the se- 

 cretion. In the larger number of leaves it acted upon 

 the meat precisely as it did in pinguicula. Usually in 

 about twenty-four hours the meat was very white and 

 tender, and had no disagreeable odor. 



But no doubt the plant receives its greatest benefit 

 from the large amount of insects caught, and which be- 

 come disgustingly putrid. When pinguicula and Dro- 

 sera get more than they can digest, the leaves succumb 

 — die in the effort to digest it. Not so with the Sar- 

 racenia : it seems to thrive on this filthy mass of insects, 

 and in time absorbs all save the dry remains of the. 

 wings of beetles and other hard parts of the bodies of 

 insects. 



On observing these carnivorous plants it is easy to 

 imagine them avengers upon their destroyers, and the 

 metamorphoses of the ancients accomplished, by which 

 living animals are transformed into trees and flowers. 

 The "Loves of the Plants," as pictured by the elder 

 Darwin, are shown by his grandson and other natural- 



