288 Pitcher Plants. (March, 
with house flies. I give the results in his own words: “ About 
a half drachm to a drachm of the liquid was placed in a small re — 
ceptacle, and the flies thrown in from time to time, the liquor not 
being deep enough to immerse them completely, but enabling — 
them to walk about in it without the risk of being drowned. Per 
haps twenty flies were experimented with. At first the fly makes _ 
an effort to escape, though apparently he never uses his wingsin 
doing so; the fluid though not very tenacious, seems quickly to 
saturate them, and so clings to them and clogs them as to render 
flight impossible. A fly when thrown into pure water is very apt 
to escape, as the fluid will ‘run’ from its wings, but none of these 
escape from the bath of the Sarracenia secretions. In their efforts 
to escape, they soon get unsteady in their movements, and tum : 
ble, sometimes, on their backs; recovering, they make more at 
tive and frantic efforts, but very quickly stupor seems to overtake 
them, and they turn on their sides, either dead (as I at first sup- 
posed) or in profound anesthesia. | 
“I had no doubt from the complete cessation of motion, and 
from their soaked and saturated condition, that they were ceai | 
and like dead men they were‘ laid out,’ from time to time, as they | 
succumbed to the powerful liquor ; but to my great surprise, afte 
a longer or shorter interval, from a half hour to an hour of ms 
they indicated signs of returning life, by slight motions of thè 
legs and body. Their recovery was very gradual, and eventually, 4 
when they crawled away, they seemed badly crippled and g 
by their Circean bath. After contact with the liquid, the fies fis 
thrown in became still, seemingly dead, in about a half nia 
but whether from exposure to the air or exhausted by action 0 
these insects, the liquor did not seem to be so intoxicating 4 
those last exposed to its influence. Anæsthesia or intoxic® — 
did not occur so quickly; it took from three to five minutes g 
erally, and in one rebellious ‘subject’ it was at least ten M 
before he received his coup de grâce. A cockroach thrown IP? 
cumbed almost immediately, as did also a small moth, pr 
more slowly a common house-spider. On the recovery 0 
latter it was almost painful to witness his unsteady ™” 
Without doubt, therefore, the secretion found in the tubes of ; 
racenia variolaris is intoxicating, or narcotic, or anæsthetic, 0f 
whatever word we may prefer to indicate that condition ta mii 
these small insects succumb.” 
