28 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
Sarracenias. They evade the seductive honey-trap, and in a 
peculiar manner store their eggs in the contents of the pitchers, 
where the larvae are nourished by the moisture and shelter 
afforded by the hooded leaves. 
The Sundew Family {Droseraccae) , is another familiar 
group of insectivorous plants, found in haunts similar to those 
of the pitcher plants. There are but two known genera, all 
species of which are flesh eating. The genus Drosera has 
seven species north of Mexico, while Dionaea has but a single 
species — Dionaea muscipula, which is native to North Carol- 
ina. 
Our most common northern sundew is the round-leaved 
species — Drosera rotundifolia. It grows in Sphagnum along 
old wood roads, near brooksides, and in the deeper swamp- 
lands, reminding one of a species of moss rather than of a 
wicked, blood-craving plant. The ladle-like leaves are orna- 
mented with dewy-tipped hairs. These act as tentacles when- 
ever an ant or fly alights upon the leaves to sip the dew, giving 
out an extra amount of viscid fluid. Like sly little fingers 
each hair begins slowly to close inwardly, until the prisoner is 
tightly held by the adhesive dewy hairs. The more he 
struggles to free himself, the more fluids the plant pours out, 
and the faster the little hairy fingers close about him. Once 
the insect alights upon these innocent looking leaves he is 
doomed. 
The leaves lie in a rosette flat upon the sphagnum, and 
thus attract such crawling insects as ants, and small flies. 
When an insect is entrapped the leaves throw out and acid, 
digestive secretion, and after the plant has absorbed the juices 
of the insect, the dewy hairs, or tentacles, return to their normal 
position, lying in wait for another victim. A leaf or stone 
dropped on these bristling leaves will bring about the closing 
in of the tentacles; but when the plant instinctively discovers 
the mistake, these tentacles return quickly to their natural 
