1883. ] Editors’ Table. 293 
feature, and the means used to accomplish the same end is a 
striking instance of the diversity in nature. While in one species 
it is a poisonous honey which intoxicates the insect and causes it 
to fall into the tube; in another it is, perhaps, a poisonous secre- 
tion of the flower, which answers the same purpose; ina third, it 
is a baited pathway which lures the insect to destruction and a 
stupefying liquid which decomposes the bodies of the same ; and 
ina fourth, it is the simulation of the wings of an insect, as wellas 
honey and a baited pathway which attracts the prey. What 
doubt can there be, but that all these contrivances subserve the 
same end? And when, too, we consider the curious relation 
between the flower and the leaf in Darlingtonia, and the very 
different shape of the flower in Sarracenia, we see there must be 
still other facts to be discovered. Such an abnormal stigma as is 
possessed by the Sarracenia can not but be of some use. With 
its broad, flat table like expansion, most effectually concealing the 
stamens behind it, it is utterly incapable of self fertilization. 
There must be some relation between it and the leaves, but what 
this is, is at present a mystery. Then to trace the evolution of 
the leaves from the normal shape to the present peculiar one, 
would be of interest, but space forbids, and leaving this matter for 
some future time we take leave of this fascinating subject. 
EDITORS TABLE. 
EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE. 
—— Owing to the almost isolated position of the United States 
as a nation, there is less stimulus to the development of a senti- 
ment of nationality here than in the case of the European nations. 
Emulation and rivalry have had a great deal to do with progress 
in Europe. It has been asserted that the absence of such compe- 
tition on this continent will work to the injury of the advance- 
ment of the United States, in matters intellectual at least. It is 
true that the character of our institutions is such as to stimulate the 
energetic prosecution of enterprises in all directions ; but success 
here will only meet with financial rewards, unless there be some senti- 
ment of national pride in the results of intellectual success, ite 
is not directly connected with the making of money. For 
Successful discoverer in the field of pure science, Europe E 
greater rewards than America. 
