448 THE PLEASURE, OB [July. 
Those plants which are placed in the greatest warmth in winter, 
continue vigorous and retain their faculty of contracting on being 
touched; but those that are in a moderate warmth have little or no 
motion. 
There are 84 species of Mimosa described; 2, with simple 
leaves; 6, with leaves simply pinnate; 3, with bigeminate or ter- 
geminate leaves; 9, with leaves conjugate, and at the same time 
pinnate; and 64, with doubly-pinnate leaves; several of the species 
are more or less sensitive, but the far greater number not at all. 
Venus's Fly-trap. 
The Dioncea Muscijiula, or Venus's fly-trap, is one of the most 
extraordinary productions of nature: in this plant there is an aston- 
ishing contrivance, to prevent the depredations of insects: the 
leaves are numerous, generally bending downwards, or rather 
spreading upon the surface of the earth, and placed in a circular 
order; each leaf is divided, as it were, into two joints, the lower, 
flat, longish, two edged, and inclining to heart-shaped; some con. 
sider this lower joint a winged petiole, similar to that on an orange 
leaf. The upper joint consists of two lobes, each semi-oval, the 
margins furnished with stiff hairs like the eye lashes, locking into 
each other when the lobes close, like the teeth of a rat-trap, to 
which the lobes, marginal hairs, and the manner of their closing, 
bear a particular resemblance. The interior of the lobes is very 
irritable, but more particularly so in warm weather, when if an unfor- 
tunate fly, or any other small animal happens to creep on it, the lobes 
immediately fold up and confine it: the greater efforts the creature 
makes to disengage itself, the more it irritates the interior parts, 
and consequently, is the more firmly secured: here it remains till 
crushed or starved to death; when, the irritation having ceased, 
the lobes open as before, and the remains of the insect is either 
washed out by the rain, or carried away by the wind. The lobes will, 
also, close if the interior be touched with a straw, Sec. 
This plant is a native of the Carolinas where it grows in swamps; 
it produces in July and August, bunches of handsome white flow- 
ers, on stems of from six to eight inches high, and in the eastern 
and middle states must be treated as a hardy green-house plant. 
It is propagated both by seeds and suckers, requires a swampy 
soil, with a mixture of fine sand, and must be kept well watered and 
in the shade during the summer months. This is a very proper 
period to take off, and plant the suckers: the seed should be sown 
early ii'. spring, forwarded in a hot-bed, and, during the summer 
months, the seedlings ought to be carefully protected from the 
mid-day sun. 
The Tutsan-leaved Dogsbane. 
The Afiocynum androscemifolium, or Tutsan-leaved Dogsbane, 
is not only interesting on account of its beauty and fragrance, but. 
also on account of the curious structure of its flowers, and their 
singular method and property of catching flies. 
