the whole disk, but especially its margin, beset with red indexed 
hairs, which discharge from their ends a drop of viscid acrid fluid 
(see fig. 8). These hairs have been thought irritable, so as to con- 
tract when touched, imj risoning insects somewhat in the manner 
of the American Dioncc'a. Musc'tpula, (Curt. Bot. Mag. t. 785). Scape 
f stalk J from 2 to 5 inches high, upright, naked, round, smooth ; 
terminated by a simple (sometimes a bifid) cluster of flowers, which 
is drooping or revolute while young. Bracteas awl-shaped, deci- 
duous, one under each partial stalk. Floxvers white, with 5 petals, 
5 stamens, and 6 pistils. The Pistils are said to be always double 
the number of the valves of the Capsule, in every known Drosera. 
Wliole plant, except the red hairs of the leaves, turns black in drying. This, 
and Drosera longifolia, sometimes acquire a stem, as has been obsetved by Ur. 
Withering, and the late Ur. Williams, l’rofessor of Botany at Oxford. 
I)r. Withering gives a long account of the peculiar power possessed by the 
Droseras to entrap flies and other insects which chance to alight on the leaves ; 
and there are many observations upon it in Lot don’s Magazine of Natural 
History — ftlr. (lent is, in his very beautiful work, British Entomology , vol. x. 
fo). 473, a, says that he has always imagined, “ that the glands at the apex of 
the hairs emitted a glutinous secretion which first held the insect, and, as Tt 
xtrugalcd, more baits u ere attached, until the end of the leaf was bent down 
and thus " insects settling upon the iuside of the leaves are caught and retained.” 
The flowers are seldom seen in an expanded state. Linnaeus says, that they 
open at nine o'clock in the morning, and close at noon. — Mr. Curtis says, 
“ those who wish to see the flower expand should gather plants with buds that 
promise to open the following day, and by putting the roots in water, and placing 
the plant in the sun, they will accomplish their object.” Brit. Ent. — Many in- 
teresting remarks and observations relating to the opening of the flowers of this 
plant maybe seen in the volumes of the Mag. of Nat. History ; especially 
some by the Rev. Mr. Biiee, of Allesley, in vol. vii. p. 273. 
The whole plant is acrid, and sufficiently caustic to erode the skin ; but judi- 
ciously managed the juice may be mixed with milk, so as to make an innocent 
und safe co metic. 1 he juice itself will destroy warts and corns. The plant 
has the same effect upon milk as Pinguicula vulgaris ; and, like that too, is 
supposed to occasion the. rot in sheep ; hence one of its English names, Red-rot, 
The Droseras once constituted the sole ingredient from which was distilled 
the celebrated aqua rosa-solis, also called rosala, or spirit of sun-dew ; highly 
extolled, in some old dispensatories, as good lor convulsions, and the plague. 
In Mr. Loudon’s Gardner's Magazine, vol. viii. p. 684, there is a paper ” On 
the Cultivation of the Droseras and Pinguiculas, by Robert Mallet, Esq. 1 ' 
in which is described a successful method adopted by Mr. Mali.lt, for the cul- 
tivation of these genera. — Another successful and ingenious inode of cultivating 
these, and most other species of bog or marsh plants, on a small scale, as prac- 
ticed by Mr. Jewett, is recorded in Loud. Ency. of Gard. (new ed.) p. 1068. 
The Natural Order Drosf.raceae consists of dicotyledonous, 
delicate herbaceous plants, often covered with glands. Their leaves 
are alternate, w ith stipulary cilice, and, as well as the young pedun- 
cles, have a circinate vernation. The calyx is monosepalous, with 
5 deep divisions, or with 5 distinct sepals; permanent, and imbri- 
cate in the bud. The corolla is composed of 5 petals, which are 
hypogynous, and alternate with the sepals. The stamens are dis- 
tinct, withering, either equal in number to the petals, and alternate 
with them, or 2, 3, or 4 times as many. The ovary ( germen J is 
single, with 3 or 5 (sometimes 6) styles, which are either wholly 
distinct, or slightly connected at the base, bifid or branched. The 
capsule is of 1 or 3 cells, and 3 or 5 valves, bearing the seeds along 
the middle, or at the base of the valves. The seeds are either 
naked or furnished with an arillus. The embryo is straight, in the 
centre of a fleshy or cartilaginous albumen ; and the radical is di- 
rected to the hilum. See Lindl. Syn, 
