74 PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 
disagreeable, tell us thisis an unfounded notion which has been 
circulated within the last thirty years; and that the genus is 
named for an early botanist, Liberatus Sabbatia. 
VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. (Plate XXXJZ) 
Dionea musctpula. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Sundew. White. Scentless. Wilmington, N.C. Spring. 
Flowers: growing on a scape in a flat-topped umbel. Calyx: of five 
sepals. Corolla: of five, obcordate petals. Stamens: fifteen. stil: one ; 
stigma, fringed and lobed. Leaves: long and narrow; terminated by a bristly 
bordered trap ; green or crimson inside. 
Even the flowers must crane their necks and gaze in wonder 
at the uncanny actions of the Venus’s fly-trap : a creature of 
most cunning devices. The trap-like appendage that termi- 
nates each leaf is set, so to speak, when the sun shines, Its 
brilliant lining piques the curiosity of small insects, which, un- 
conscious of the wise maxim, to look with one’s eyes and not 
with one’s fingers, attempt to investigate for themselves. No 
sooner does one arrive and brush against the bristles that line 
the edge of the trap, than the latter closes and crushes the life 
out of the intruder. In adroitness it can well vie with the 
spider. The poor guileless fly is then prepared for digestion by 
a secretion from minute glands that line the inner surface of 
the leaves. His end is in assimilation and affording nourish- 
ment to the plant. 
Should the fly by any chance effect an escape, the trap would 
then innocently open and again await its opportunity. 
ROUND-LEAVED SUNDEW. 
Drésera rotundifolia. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Sundew. White. Scentless. Northern and eastern. Midsummer. 
Flowers : small ; growing on one side of a raceme like cluster at the end of a 
naked scape that uncoils as the flowers expand. Calyx: of five sepals. 
Corolla: of five petals. Stamens: five to fifteen. Prstil : one, with a deeply 
three or five parted style. Zeaves: rounded; provided with leafstalks; the 
upper surface rough and sticky. The edge of the leaf fringed with reddish 
bristies. 
When the sun shines upon the leaves of this little bog herb 

