HOW CERTAIN PLANTS CAPTURE INSECTS. 
45 
considerable force to open the trap. If nothing is caught the trap presently 
reopens of itself and is ready for another attempt. When a fly .or any similar 
insect is captured it is retained until it perishes, — is killed, indeed, and con- 
sumed ; after which it opens for another capture. But after the first or second it 
acts sluggishly and feebly, it ages and hardens, at length loses its sensibility, and 
slowly decays. 
99. It cannot be supposed that plants, like boys, catch flies for pastime or in 
objectless wmitonness. Living beings though they are, yet they are not of a suf- 
ficiently high order for that. It is equally incredible that such an exquisite 
apparatus as this should be purposeless. And in the present case the evidence of 
the purpose and of the meaning of the strange action is wellnigh complete. 
The face of this living trap is thickly sprinkled with glands immersed in its tex- 
ture, of elaborate structure under the microscope, but large enough to be clearly 
discerned with a hand lens ; these glands, soon after an insect is closed upon, give 
out a saliva-like liquid, which moistens the insect, and in a short time (within a 
week or two) dissolves all its soft parts, — digests them, we must believe ; and the 
liquid, with the animal matter it has dissolved, is re-absorbed into the leaf! We 
are forced to conclude that, in addition to the ordinary faculties and function of 
a vegetable, this plant is really carnivorous.* 
100. That, while all plants are food for animals, some few should, in turn and 
to some extent, feed upon them, will appear more credible when it is considered 
that whole tribes of plants of the lowest grade (Mould-Fungi and the like) habit- 
ually feed upon living plants and living animals, or upon their juices when dead. 
An account of them would make a volume of itself, and an interesting one. But 
all goes to show that the instances of extraordinary behavior which have been 
* Ellis, who first described the Dioncea in full, and gave it this name noticed the liquid secretion and 
the glands that produce it, hut thought that it was given out while the trap was open and as a lure to 
insects : he expi’essed his belief that the leaves caught insects for the purpose of nutrition. Linnaeus 
appears to have doubted this ; he omitted all account of the fluid, and gave a more humane, but incor- 
rect, version of the plant’s behavior, stating that the trap holds the insect only while it struggles, but 
releases it on becoming quiet: and this statement has been commonly adopted. Elliott merely copied 
the description by Linnaeus. The Rev. Dr. M. A. Curtis of North Carolina (just deceased) gave a 
more correct account about thirty years ago. Recently Mr. William M. Canby of Delaware has pub- 
lished some very interesting observations and experiments; which show that the liquid is a sort of gas- 
tric juice, exuded after the capture. He also fed the leaves with morsels of raw beef, and found that 
these in most instances were mainly dissolved in the juice, which then disappeared, evidently by ab- 
sorption. Similar observations and experiments made by Mr. Darwin are still unpublished. 
