THE SUNDEW FAMILY 
[ORDER XXIX. DROSERACEiE] 
T HIS is a small, though very interesting, family of marsh plants, found all over the world. Its 
peculiarity exists in its leaves, which are fringed, and more or less covered with gland-tipped 
hairs. These glands give out a sticky fluid, which clings to any fly that happens to alight and 
prevents its escape. Meanwhile the hairs bend down over the fly and complete the capture, only 
turning back when the nutriment desired has been absorbed from the victim. Experiments have 
been made which prove that these plants thrive better when thus supplied with animal food. In 
Britain we only possess one genus of very small plants, the Sundew (Drosera), but other genera 
are to be found all over the world where there is bog country. 
South Carolina is the home of the Venus’ Fly-trap (Dionsea muscipula), a most curious plant, 
with leaves which shut up with a spring directly a fly touches the inside, the powerful hairs fringing 
the leaf interlocking and securing the fly. In this plant the glands are on the surface of the leaf, 
not on the hairs. 
SUNDEW. (DROSERA, LINN.) — Flowers small, white, pink or pale-purple, in one-sided clusters 
(racemes), coiled in bud, on a leafless stalk from the root (a scape). Sepals 5, free ; petals 5, free 
and spreading ; stamens 5 ; carpels 3-5, united into the seedcase and separating into 3-5 styles, 
which are each 2-cleft, and so appear twice as many. Fruit a many-seeded, 1 -celled capsule, 
opening by the same number of valves as there are styles. Stemless bog plants, with a rosette of 
long-stalked leaves tinged with red, and covered with red, gland-tipped hairs, which glisten like 
dew, and so give the name to the plants. These glands send out a sticky fluid that, clinging to 
any fly that happens to alight, prevents its escape ; the hairs then turn down over the fly, and its 
juices are absorbed by the plant. 
Round-leaved Sundew. (Drosera rotundifolia, Linn.) — As just described. Flowers 
small, white, with the petals a little longer than the sepals, in i-sided clusters, coiled in bud, on a 
leafless stalk from the root (scape), 2-6 inches high, much longer than the leaves, never opening 
except in very sunny weather. Fruit an oval capsule, about as long as the sepals, many-seeded ; 
leaves roundish and spreading. [Plate 45. 
Common on spongy bogs and wet heaths. July — August. Perennial. 
Larger Long-leaved or English Sundew. (Drosera anglica, Huds.)— A very 
similar species, differing in having rather larger flowers, on shorter stalks, the capsules longer than 
the sepals, and much longer, narrower, and more erect leaves. 
Not common. Found with the Round-leaved Sundew in bogs and heaths. July — August. 
Perennial. 
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