DIQNJEA MUSCIPULA.— VENUS’S FLY-TRAP. 
Class X. DECANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, DROSERACEflE. THE SUN-DEW TRIBE. 
Dion^ea (one of the names of Venus.) Sepals and petals 5. Stamens 10-20; anthers bursting laterally. 
Style 1. Stigma fringed. Capsules 5-valved, 1-celled. Seeds numerous, half buried in the cellular sub- 
stance at the base of the capsule. 
Herb smooth. Leaves radical, on long footstalks, which are dilated at the top into a 2-lobed irritable 
limb, which is beset with one row of long hairs on the margin, which fold together when touched in the 
manner of the teeth of a trap. Flowers white, in terminal corymbs. This is a singular plant in respect of 
its leaves, which are of an anomalous form, and have a singular motion by which they catch insects, whence 
the specific name muscipula, a fly-trap. The root is scaly, almost like a bulb, and not prolific in fibres. 
The leaves have the petiole winged as in the orange ; the extreme part or proper leaf is the part that 
operates as the trap. As soon as the insect enters, the lobes of the leaf fold together, and remain so as long 
as the insect continues to struggle, but as soon as it ceases and is quiet the leaf opens and permits it to 
escape. A straw or pin introduced between the lobes of the leaf will have the same effect. Mr. Ellis thinks 
it probable that a sweet liquor discharged by the red glands on the inner surface tempts insects to their 
destruction. “ On the side of each lobe of the leaf stand about three erect, highly irritable bristles, which, 
when touched, cause the two lobes to fold together like a rat-trap, imprisoning insects ; no doubt that their 
bodies may administer an air wholesome to the plant, which theory and recent observations on Sarracdnia, 
Drosera and Nepenthes confirm.” Smith, introd. bot. 
Venus’s Fly-trap. FI. July, Aug. Clt. 1768. PL \ to \ ft. 
Cult. This plant thrives best in small pots in peat earth, and some dwarf species of moss placed under- 
neath in the pot; the pots should then be placed in a pan of water and set in a cool place near the glass in 
the stove. Seeds are sometimes produced, by which they may be increased as well as by dividing the 
plants at the root. Mr. Shepherd of Liverpool finds that the leaves will root, if placed on damp moss, and 
emit young plants from their edges. 
A popular writer says, “ on Monday next is May-morning ; — a word, which used to awaken in the 
minds of our ancestors all the ideas of youth, and verdure, and blossoming, and love, and hilarity ; in short 
the union of the two best things in the world, the love of nature, and the love of each other. It was the 
day, ‘(on which the arrival of the year at maturity was kept, like that of a blooming heiress. They caught 
her eye as she was coming, and sent up hundreds of songs of joy. 
Now the bright morning-star, day’s harbinger, 
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her 
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws 
The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose. 
Hail bounteous May, that dost inspire 
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ; 
Woods and groves are of thy dressing; 
Hill, and dale, doth boast thy blessing. 
Thus we salute thee with our early song, 
And welcome thee, and wish thee long. 
These songs were stopped by Milton’s own friends, whom in his old age he again differed with, most likely 
on these very points among others. But till then, they appear to have been as old, all over Europe, as the 
existence of society. The Druids are said to have had festivals in honour of May. Our Teutonic ances- 
tors had undoubtedly ; and in the countries which had constituted the Western Roman Empire, Flora still 
saw thanks paid for her flowers, though her worship had gone away. a 
The homage, which was paid to the month of love and flowers, may be divided into two sorts, the 
general and the individual. The first consisted in going with others to gather May, and in joining in sports 
and games afterwards. On the first of the month, “the juvenile part of both sexes,” says Bourne, in his 
Popular Antiquities, “were wont to rise a little after midnight and walk to some neighbouring wood, where 
a The great May holiday observed over the West of Europe was known for centuries, up to a late period, under the name of Beltein 
or Beltane. Such a number of etymologies, all perplexingly probable, have been found for this word, that we have been surprised to 
miss among them that of bel-temps, the fine time or season. Thus printemps, the first time or prime season, is the spring. 
