474 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 23, 1888. 
this plant appear to have been sent to this country about 1765, 
and living plants in 1768, and at that time it had not suggested 
itself to botanists tint the object of these traps was to procure 
a supply of food to the plants. Linnreus affirmed that when the 
insect ceased to struggle that the leaf opened and permitted it 
to escape, but Linnaeus evidently had not seen living plants and 
their action, and recorded his opinion from dried specimens. It 
must now be evident to every cultivator of this plant how it 
grips and devours its prey. 
Some fifty or sixty years ago Dr M. A. Curtis, an American 
botanist, made some practical observations on theDionaea in the 
midst of its native district, and he stated that the little prisoners 
are not suddenly crushed and destroyed as sometimes supposed, 
for he often liberated the captive flies and spiders, and he also 
observed that those not released were made subservient to the 
nourishment of the plants. Dr. Curtis also noticed that some¬ 
times the insects were enveloped in a fluid of mucilaginous con¬ 
sistency, which seemed to act as a solvent, the insect being more 
or less consumed in it. These investigations by Curtis led to 
further examinations by Mr. Cranby, who found that the fluid 
is always p' snt around the captive insect in due time, provided 
the leaf is rood condition and the prey suitable ; that this 
fluid exudes m the leaf itself, and not from the decomposing 
insect. He a^o noticed that bits of raw beef, although some¬ 
times rejected, were generally acted upon in the same manner, 
the leaf closing tightly upon the beef, surrounding it with the 
fluid, and then dissolving and absorbing it. This fluid may 
therefore be assumed to be analogous to the gastric juices of 
animals, dissolving the food and rendering it fit for absorption 
by the leaf. The hi-lily sensitive trap attached to the leaf of 
the Dionasa is truly a deadly snare, keeping closely shut until 
the insect is dead and absorbed into the plant. Until this 
is accomplished it does not open again. 
y In the report of the British Association for 1873 there is a 
most interesting piper by Dr. Burdon Sanderson on the elec¬ 
trical phenomena which accompanies the contraction of the leaf 
of the Dioniea muscipula, observes—“ Strange as it may seem, 
the question whether these contractile movements are accom¬ 
plished by the same electrical changes as those which occur in 
the contraction of a muscle and in the functional excitation of 
nerve has never yet been investigated by vegetable physiolo¬ 
gists.” By these experiments Dr. Sanderson has shown that 
these currents are subject in all respects, so far as yet investi¬ 
gated, to the same law as that which governs the action of muscle 
and nerve. 
Nepenthes, Sarracenias, Cephalotus, and Darlingtonias do 
not close the foliage on their prey as do the Dionsea, and an 
interesting question is opened up. What power is at work to 
keep the insects in the pitcher-like formation of these leaves of 
these plants? Intoxication has been suggested, and however 
strange and unlikely this theory may at first sight appear, it is 
evident from experiments which have been made that the host 
supplies its guest with something stronger than water to drink. 
Dr. Mellichamp, another American botanist, in directing his 
attention to the inebriating or narcotic properties of these plants, 
drained a quantity of the pitchers of Sarracenias of the few 
drops of juice contained in them, and so collected about half an 
ounce of the secretion in a phial, and with this made careful 
experiments in ascertaining its intoxicating effects upon insects, 
chiefly house flies. From a half to a whole drachm of this secre¬ 
tion was placed in a small receptacle, and the flies thrown in 
occasionally, the iquid not being deep enough for immersion, 
and enabling them to walk about without swimming and the 
risk of being drowned. In this way some twenty flies were ex¬ 
perimented upon with this result. At first the fly makes an 
effort to escape, though apparently never using his wings in 
trying to do so; the fluid, though not apparently very tenacious, 
seems quickly to saturate the fly, clinging to it, and clogging 
its action, rendering flight impossible. A fly when thrown into 
water manages generally to escape, and the water soon dries 
from its wings, but none escaped from the bath of Sarracenia 
secretion, and in their efforts to escape they soon got unsteady 
in their movements, often turn I ling on their backs, and recover¬ 
ing, make frantic efforts to escape, but quickly stupor overtakes 
them, and profound anaesthesia or death seizes them. Dr. 
Mellichamp goes on to say, “I had no doubt, from the complete 
cessation of all motion, and from their soaked and saturated 
condition, that they were dead, and like dead men they were laid 
out as they succumbed to the powerful liquor, but to my great 
surprise, after a longer or shorter interval, from half an hour 
to an hour or more, they indicated signs of returning life by 
slight motions of the wings, legs, or body, their recovery 
being gradual, and eventua ly when they crawled away they 
seemed to be badly crippled and worsted by their bath. After < 
contact with the secretion the flies first thrown in become still, 
seemingly dead, in about half a minute, but I notice that either 
from exposure to the air, or its strength exhausted by its action 
upon the victims first thrown in it, the effects were not so in¬ 
toxicating on the last insects exposed to its influence. Anaesthesia 
or intoxication certainly did not occur so quickly, taking from 
three to five minutes generally to produce effect, and one re- 
be’lious subject held out for ten minutes. A cockroach thrown 
in succumbed almost immediately, as did also a srnafl moth, and 
a common house spider much more slowly.” Without doubt, 
therefore, the secretion found in the tubes of the Sarracenia is 
an intoxicant and a narcotic. 
(To be continued.) 
ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The first meeting of th's Society for the present session was held on 
Wednesday evening, the 17th iust., at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, 
Great George Street, Mr. W. Ellis, F.R.A.S., President, in the chair. 
The following gentlemen were elected Fellows—viz., Mr. B. A. Dobson, 
Mr. T. Gordon, Mr. H. Mantle, Rev. J. Watson, and Mr. F. Wright. 
The papers read were :— 
1, “ The Gale of October 15th-16th, 1886, over the British Islands,” by 
Mr. C. Harding, F.R.Met.Soc. The storm was of very exceptional strength 
in the west, south-west, and south of the British Islands, but the principal 
violence of the wind was limited to these parts, although the force of a gale 
was experienced generally over the whole kingdom. By the aid of ships’ 
observations the storm has been tracked a long distance out in the Atlantic. 
It app ars to have been formed about 250 miles to the south-east of New¬ 
foundland on the 12th, and was experienced by many ocenn steamers on the 
13th. When the first indication of approaching bad weather was shown by 
the barometer and wind at our western outposts the storm was.about 500 
miles to the west-south-west of the Irish coast, and was advancing at the 
rate of nearly fifty miles an hour. The centre of the disturbance struck 
the coast of Ireland at about 1 a.m. on the 15th, and by 8 a.m. was central 
over Ireland. The storm trav j rsed the Irish Sea, and turned to the south¬ 
east over the western midlands and the southern counties of England, and 
its centre remained over the Brit sh Isles about thirty-four hours havin g g 
traversed about 500 miles. Tbe storm afterwards crossed the Eig i, h 
Channel into France, and subsequently agiin took a course to the no t - 
eastwards, and finally broke up over Ho land. In the centre of the storm 
the barometer fell to 28'5 ius.; but as far as the action of the barometer was 
concerned, the principal feature of importance was the length of time that 
the readings remained low. At Galdeston, not far from .Lowestoft, the 
mercury was below 29 ins. for fifty hours, and at Greenwich it was similarly 
low for forty hours. The highest recorded hourly velocity of the wind was 
seventy-eight miles from north-west at Scilly on the morning of the 16th, 
but on due allowance being made for the squally character of the gale, it is 
estimated that in the squalls the velocity reached for a minute or so the 
hourly rate of about 120 miles, which is equivalent to a pressure of about 
70 lbs. on the square foot. On the mainland the wind attained a velocity of 
about sixty miles an hour for a considerable time, but without question this 
velocity would be greatly exceeded in the squalls. In the eastern parts of 
England the velocity scarcely amounted to thirty miles in the hour. The 
force of the gale was very prolonged. At Scilly the velocity was above 
thirty miles an hour for sixty-one hours, and it was. above sixty miles for 
nineteen hours, whilst at Falmouth it was above thirty mileB an hour for 
fifty-two hours. Tbe erratic course of the storm and its slow rate of travel 
whilst over the British Islands was attributed to the presence of a barrier 
of high barometer readings over northern Europe, and also to the attraction 
in a westerly direction owing to the great condensation and heavy rain in 
the rear of the storm. The rainfall in Ireland, Wales, and the south-west 
of England was exceptionally heavy. In the neighborhood of Aberystwitli 
the fall on the 15th was 3'83 ins., and at several stations the amount exceeded 
2 ins. Serious floods occurred in many parts of the country. A most 
terrific Bea was also experienced on the western coasts and in the Euglish 
Channel, and the number of vessels to which casualties occurred on the 
British coasts during the gale tell their own tale of its violence. The total 
number of casualties to sailing vessels and steamships was 158, and among 
these were five sailing and one steamship abandoned, five sailing and one 
steamship foundered, and forty-two sailing and two steamships stranded. 
During the gale the life boats of the Royal National Life Boat Institution 
were launched fourteen time3 and were instrumental m saving thirty-six 
UVe 2 S ,' “ The Climate of Carlisle,” by Mr. T. G. Penn, F R.Met.Soc. This is 
a discussion of the observations made at the Carlisle Cemetery. The mean 
temperature for the twenty-three years (1863-85) was 47-5°, the absolute 
highest was 95 0° on July 22nd, 1873, and the lowest — 5-5* on January 16th, 
1881 The mean annual rainfall was 29'80 ins., the greatest monthly fall was 
7-84 ins. in July, 1884, and the least 0’30 in. in January, 1881. The average 
number of rainy days was 174. . , , ^ _ , , 
3 “ Results of Hourly Readings Derived from a Redier Barograph at 
Geld’eston, Norfolk, during the four years ending February, 1886,” by Mr. 
E. T. Dowson, F.R.M-t.Soc. ... . 
4 “ Results of Observations taken at Delanasan, Bua, Fiji, during the 
five years ending December 31st, 1885, with a Summary of Results for ten 
years previous,” by Mr. R. L. Holmes, F.R.Met.Soc. 
HIGH AND DEEP PLANTING. 
(Continued from page 449.) 
Instead of a fruit or any other tree or shrub being planted on a level 
with the ordinary ground line, they ought always to be considerably above 
it especially when the soil is of a close cold nature. I like to see the 
collar, or that portion of the stem where the topmost roots sta.t frem 
