BOTANICAL EVOLUTION. digs 
other invertebrates, but that they catch and destroy large numbers of 
newly-hatched fish. Once -caught, whether by the head or the tail, 
the young fish never seem to escape. 
In still another class of plants distinct from either pitcher 
plants or bladder-worts, has this carnivorous habit been acquired. 
Glandular hairs, 7.e., those furnished with sticky or viscid heads, 
are common’ on many plants. We know them well on the flower- 
stalks of petunias and some other plants, and we are probably 
correct in conjecturing that their use is to prevent creeping 
insects from getting to the flowers to steal the nectar or pollen. 
But apparently in addition to this function, many of them appear 
to have acquired a secretory power and they probably abstract 
from the rain and dew-drops which fall on them, or from the 
animals which adhere to them, minute quantities of nitrogenous. 
materials. ‘This is the probable origin of those remarkable 
hairs which cover the leaves and stems of Droseras or Sun-dews. 
Here are dried specimens of all the New Zealand species of 
Drosera, and in all of them the glandular hairs are present in 
abundance. But whatever was their original function, they have now 
acquired the power of abstracting the nitrogenous matter out of 
almost any animal or vegetable substance containing it, which comes 
in contact with their glands. Each of the hairs is tipped with a little 
clear drop of liquid, not larger than a small pin’s head, and the 
abundance of these causes the leaves to glisten as with a covering of 
dew, hence the common name of Sun-dew as well as the technical 
name Drosera. When the plants are examined closely, small flies, 
ants, and beetles,-as well as seeds, bits of leaves, and similar sub- 
stances, are found adhering to the hairs, so that sometimes the plants 
are termed flycatchers. In speaking of these plants and their action 
it is difficult to avoid using such terms as convey the idea that they 
are sentient beings. If an insect or a picce of meat be placed on a 
part.of one of these leaves, all the hairs within reach quickly bend 
over and press their glandular heads upon it. A glairy fluid is 
excreted by them, which completely bathes the article of food and 
gradually dissolves it away, and the products of this dissolution are 
absorbed by the leaf. The digestive powers of these glands appear 
to equal our own, and like ourselves, they sometimes suffer from 
dyspepsia, when treated to indigestible food. In the experiments 
conducted by Darwin on D. rotundifolia, the common English species, 
meat raw or. cooked, gluten, gelatin, bone, milk, soups, &c., were all 
digested. Starch, fats, oil, cellulose, and other non-nitrogenized 
matters, were not digested, and in fact produced no exciting effect 
on the glands, while cheese produced a vigorous attempt at digestion, 
apparently followed by acute dyspepsia. Our New Zealand species 
give similar results. In ‘“ Nature,’ Vol. XXX., p. 241, is an account 
of the capture of dragon-flies by the leaves of Drosera rotundifolia, an 
English species. ‘‘The Drosera plants, being young, were in many 
instances less in expanse than the dragon-flies caught upon them, 
which measure about two inches across the wings, with a body about 
an inch and a-half long. The dragon-flies appeared to be attracted to 
the plants by the reflected sunlight glistening upon the beads of fluid 
secreted from the leaves; . . . they hovered over the plants about 
a second, at a distance of three or four feet, and then darted upon the 
plant, when they were instantly caught.” 
