456 
PECULIARITIES OF PLANTS. 
Muscipula, or Venus’s Fly-trap, (Fig. 59). This plant lias jointed 
leaves, furnished on the edges with' a row of strong prickles, and what 
is called the leaf is supposed to be the petioles, which are winged 
like those of the orange, so that it is the proper leaf which operates 
as the trap. Some persons have thought that the winged petiole, 
or leaf-stalk, is the true leaf itself, and that the trap is merely an 
appendage; this latter notion, from the appearance of the plant 
in our possession, strikes us as being the most probable. There 
is a sweetness, secreted in glands on the surface of the trap, which 
appears to attract flies, and no sooner do they venture to settle 
on its surface, than the sides ol the leaves spring up after the 
manner ol a rat-trap, and locking their rows of prickles together, 
59 
squeeze the insects to death; after which it again expands. Linnaeus 
and otlieis thought, that it the insect ceased to struggle, the leal would 
open and liberate the prisoner. l’his might possibly be the case, if 
it vvcie perfectly quiet, but the least irritation keeps it fast closed. 
Fills says the lobes never open again, so long as the animal continues 
