ON THE CULTURE OF PEPPER AND RICE. 
253 
as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any other part without sensible effects. 
The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly destroyed, as is sometimes supposed, 
for I have often liberated captive flies and spiders, which sped away as fast as fear 
or joy could hasten them. At other times I have found them enveloped in a fluid 
of mucilaginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects being- 
more or less consumed in it. This circumstance has suggested the possibility of 
the insects being made subservient to the nourishment of the plant, through an 
apparatus of absorbent vessels in the leaves. But as I have not examined suffi- 
ciently to pronounce on the universality of this result, it will require further 
observation and experiment on the spot, to ascertain its nature and importance. 
It is not to be supposed, however, that such food is necessary to the existence of 
the plant, though like compost, it may increase its growth and vigour. But how- 
ever obscure and uncertain may be the final purpose of such a singular organisation, 
if it were a problem to construct a plant with reference to entrapping insects, I 
cannot conceive of a form and organisation better adapted to secure that end than 
are found in the Dioncea muscipula. I therefore deem it no credulous inference 
that its leaves are constructed for that specific object, whether insects subserve the 
purpose of nourishment to the plant or not. It is no objection to this view, that 
they are subject to blind accident, and sometimes close upon straws as well as 
insects. It would be a curious vegetable indeed, that had a faculty of distinguishing 
bodies, and recoiled at the touch of one, while it quietly submitted to violence from 
another. Such capricious sensitiveness is not a property of the vegetable kingdom. 
The spider's net is spread to ensnare flies, yet it catches whatever falls upon it, and 
the ant-lion is roused from his hiding place by the fall of a pebble ; so much are 
insects also subject to the blindness of accident." 
ON THE CULTURE OF PEPPER AND OF RICE. 
Black pepper thrives luxuriantly in most soils, and when once reared requires 
comparatively little care and labour. The preference in choosing a situation is 
usually given to level grounds along the banks of rivers (provided they are not so 
low as to be inundated,) on account of the rich vegetable mould found in those locali- 
ties, and for the advantages of water carriage. Plantations of this tree are seldom 
made on rising ground, unless the ascent be very gentle, otherwise the soil is likely 
to be loosened and washed away from the roots of the vines. The goodness of 
pepper is considered to depend more upon the natural qualities of the soil than the 
care bestowed upon its cultivation. It is a hardy tropical plant, and grows readily 
from cuttings, or layers, rising in several knotted stems, which cling round any 
neighbouring support, and adhere to it by means of fibres, that shoot from every 
joint at intervals, of from six to ten inches, and through which it probably imbibes 
its nourishment. If left without any means of climbing upwards, the stalk unable 
to support itself, creeps along the ground; the fibres at the joints then become 
roots, but in this situation the plant would never exhibit signs of fructification. 
