92 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



We have met with no indications in any of the details 

 of experiments, of aggregation of protoplasm, which, 

 as we have seen elsewhere, accompanies the absorp- 

 tion of animal matter. Hence, for the present, the 

 admission of the Sarracenias into the circle of 

 insectivorous plants can only be tentative. There 

 may be strong presumption that it would not have 

 become a fly-catcher, on such an extensive scale, if 

 such a proceeding were not in some way beneficial 

 to the plant. That, unless insects are of some service, 

 it may be regarded as a waste of power, to secrete a 

 honeyed juice around the open jaws of death, and lure 

 the unoffending flies to certain destruction, in wanton 

 mischief. The fact, perhaps, would be better stated 

 in such terms as would indicate, that hitherto the 

 observations are incomplete, and, although strongly 

 suspected, the Sarracenias can only be charged with 

 destroying insects, and not with devouring them. 



It is manifestly difficult to suggest any plausible 

 theory to account for the presence of insects, nay, 

 more, the special adaptation for the capture of insects, 

 if we reject the carnivorous hypothesis. We could 

 not accept the suggestion that they simply store up 

 insects for certain insectivorous birds, nor that insects 

 are collected in their receptacles in order to furnish 

 food to some larvae, which are developed from the 

 eggs of other insects, which are deposited there by 

 choice or chance. The only feasible theory would be 



