fin 



entered the pitcher, never leave it alive. Whether 

 imprisonment and ultimate drowning is due to their in- 

 ability to scale the slippery walls and the barrier of hairs 

 or whether, as some botanist claim, the fluid in the leaf 

 takes the form of a mild drug or intoxicant and overcomes 

 them, can only be guessed at until experiments have proved 

 conclusively. 



These trapped insects are absorbed into the plant's 

 system as they decompose; as the pitcher plant thus lives 

 partially at least, upon animate matter it is usually known 

 as one of the insectivorous plants. The sundewa, little 

 plants with leaves also arranged in the forms of rosettes, 

 are also insect-eating plants. Their leaves are covered 

 with fine hairs that are in reality little tubes. Tiny drops 

 of very sticky, dew-like liquid are exuded from the tips of 

 these hairs; attracted by these, small flies become en- 

 tangled and the leaf slowly furls up and devours its victims. 



Probably the most wonderful insectivorous plant in the 

 world is the Venus' Fly-trap, a plant that is found in 

 certain bogs in eastern North Carolina: It certainly has 

 the most restricted area of distribution of any North 

 American plant. Each leaf of Venus' Fly-trap, and by the 

 way they, too, all radiate from the base, rosette-like, has 

 a circular section at its end, the two sides of which have 

 the power of closing together quickly upon the midrib as 

 an axis. The surfaces of these tips are sensitive, — a fly 

 alighting on one is almost invariably caught by its sudden 

 closing. After having caught a victim, that leaf remains 

 dormant for several days while the prey is being devoured. 



Most interesting of all plants, however, are 



ORCHIDS. 



Orchids are the most highly specialized flowers that 

 exist. They include some of the rarest and most valuable 

 plants known, from a monetary point of view. Some are 

 exquisitely beautiful, others are very ugly, and all are very 

 peculiar in shape. Practically all of them are infertile to 



