THE SUNDEWS. 23 



CHAPTER II. 



CARNIVOROUS PLANTS — THE SUNDEWS. 



It is very many years since we wandered about the 

 low swampy parts of Hampstead Heath, in search of 

 the little sundew. It had in those days an interest 

 from its comparative rarity, since it inhabits such 

 localities as are not to be found in every district ; but 

 it had also other interest, in the beautiful sparkling 

 glands of the leaves, and its mysterious association 

 with dead insects. This little plant is so incon- 

 spicuous that it must be hunted for, amongst the bog 

 moss, in the swampy places in which it delights to 

 grow. The little leaves are nearly as round as a shirt 

 button, and seldom so much as half an inch in 

 diameter, attached at the lower edge to long slender 

 stalks. 1 These stalks radiate from a central point, 

 a short root-stock, and the leaves lie flat on the 

 ground, like a little rosette. In the centre rises the 

 flowering stem, sometimes from four to six inches 

 high, with a few minute white flowers towards the top 

 (fig. 1). The leaves and the ends of the leaf-stalks 



1 Drosera rotundifolia. 



