io New Phase of Plant-Life. [January, 
very rudimentary. Yet the mere faCt that such movements 
and such impulses exist, is surely most significant. 
But the various species of Drosera are far from being the 
sole inseCt-catching and flesh-digesting vegetables. In 
North Carolina grows the Dioncea muscicapa, “ Venus’s 
fly-trap,” a carnivorous plant still more highly specialised. 
This plant does not entangle its prey by the aid of an 
ever-ready glutinous secretion, but closes upon it like a 
spring trap. The leaf has two lobes standing at the 
inclination of rather less than a right angle to each other. 
“ Three minute pointed processes or filaments, placed 
triangularly, project from the upper surfaces of both, and 
are remarkable from their extreme sensitiveness to a touch. 
The margins of the leaf are prolonged into sharp, rigid 
projections, which I will call spikes, into each of which a 
bundle of spiral vessels enters. The spikes stand in such 
a position that when the lobes close they interlock like 
the teeth of a rat-trap. The midrib of the leaf, on the 
lower side, is strongly developed and prominent.” The 
leaf, unlike that of Drosera, is sensitive to the momentary 
touch of a solid body, but is also unaffected by drops of 
water or currents of air. As soon as one of the filaments is 
touched, the lobes close with remarkable quickness, and the 
marginal spikes interlace. So firmly are the lobes thus 
pressed together, that if any large inseCt has been caught a 
corresponding projection on the outside of the leaf is 
distinctly visible. When closed, they resist reopening with 
an astonishing force, and are generally ruptured before 
yielding. But if pulled asunder without being torn, they 
close again, according to the statement of Dr. Canby, “with 
quite a loud flap.” Though this plant makes no use of any 
viscid secretion to capture its prey, yet when an inseCt is 
once enclosed a fluid is poured out analogous to that 
secreted by the Drosera , but more decidedly acid, and a 
process of digestion and absorption sets in. If, however, a 
leaf has closed over any non-nitrogenous, and consequently 
innutritious, matter, such as wood, cork, moss, or paper, 
the leaf remains quite dry, and soon re-expands. Over a 
nitrogenous body, on the contrary, the leaf remains closed 
for many days, and when it re-opens it is still torpid, and 
never adls again, or at most only after a considerable lapse 
of time. The inseCts caught differ from those generally 
captured by the Drosera. This latter plant, aided by its 
bird-lime, is able to secure the tiniest and most rapidly- 
flying inseCts. Out of fourteen leaves of the Dioncea 
containing captured inseCts, three had caught ants, five 
