DIONLE'A MUSCI'PULA. 
venus’s flytrap. 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
DROSERACEAL • 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Carolina. 
1 foot. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1768. 
No. 1064. 
Dionaea, a name of Venus, chosen, it may he sup- 
posed, from a desire to mark this curious plant by a 
distinguished, rather than an appropriate, name. 
Dionaea muscipula was first received in a living 
state, into the Royal Ivew Gardens, in 1768, from 
the swamps of North Carolina. No plant, perhaps, 
ever excited a more intense interest, on its first 
introduction, than did this curious fly-trap. John 
Ellis, a merchant, of London, and an indefatigable 
naturalist, wrote a pamphlet on it; and being a 
constant correspondent of Linneus, first communi- 
cated a drawing and description of the plant to 
that celebrated botanist. No expressions of ours 
can be so convincing or interesting as those of 
Linneus himself, on acknowledging this communi- 
nication, after having laid it before the Royal 
Academy of Sciences of Upsal. He says, “ I 
yesterday received your welcome letter, accompany- 
ing the description, character, and figure, of that 
most rare and singular plant, the Dionaea, than 
which, certainly, nothing more interesting was 
ever seen. I laid this communication before our 
Royal Academy of Sciences to-day, nor was it 
