MIMULUS SMITHII. 
view to direct the attention of others to the elucidation of an interesting inquiry, I 
shall take the liberty of submitting to you the result of the observations which I 
was enabled to make. 
“ And first, with respect to the side-saddle flower ( Sarracenia ,) a genus 
of plants with which most gardeners are acquainted. 
Each leaf is a hollow cylinder, capable of contain- 
ing water : the aperture at the extremity of the 
tube is furnished with a leafy appendage, which before 
the leaf reaches its full size covers it so closely 
as to exclude the rain and dews ; at other times 
the lid recedes from the aperture, and then the 
tube will generally be found to contain water, in 
which a number of dead and dying flies may at 
all times be observed. This singular construction 
of the leaf is evidently designed by nature to 
retain moisture, for the purpose of supplying the 
plant in times of drought ; but the late Sir J. C. 
Smith, having probably examined the plant when 
young, and observing that the aperture of S. 
adunca ( variolaris ) was so completely closed as to 
exclude water, gave it as his opinion that the 
tube must have been intended to serve some other 
purpose ; and having stated, on the authority of one 
of the young men in the Liverpool Botanic Garden, 
that the flies are deposited in the tubular leaves, by 
a species of sphex or ichneumon, concludes that 
‘ The flies are deposited by this insect, unquestion- 
ably for the food of itself, or its progeny, probably 
depositing its eggs in their carcases, as others of the 
same tribe lay their eggs in various caterjiillars, 
which they sometimes after bury in the ground/ 
I cannot avoid observing, that this quotation betrays 
greater inaccuracy in the late venerated president of 
the Linnsean Society, than one would have sup- 
posed compatible with the known industry of that 
close observer, and ardent lover of nature. We are 
not acquainted with any species of sphex or ichneu- 
mon which, in its perfect state, feeds on dead flies ; 
and to place the fly in which the ichneumon had 
deposited its eggs in a situation where it must at 
once cease to exist, would be to frustrate the end 
designed in laying them, and is contrary to every 
thing that is known of the habits of these insects ; 
for although the caterpillars often fall victims to 
these parasites, it is not until the latter have lived 
