PECULIARITIES OF PLANTS. 
457 
therein, that is, so long as it remains a perfect insect, or in other 
words, until it becomes a skeleton. However correct this idea may be 
in some instances, it does not appear to hold good in all, for some plants 
of the kind in our possession begin to open soon after the little insect’s 
death, and in the course of a short time the plant is expanded as it 
was before. A straw or a pin touching the middle of each lobe has 
the same effect as the legs of an insect, (for the chief seat of irritabi¬ 
lity appears to be in three small hairs situated in the middle of each 
lobe,) but after these are withdrawn, the lobes will again open in the 
course of an hour. What can be the use of this extraordinary irrita¬ 
bility is not at present discovered; Sir J. E. Smith believed that the 
dead insects were beneficial to vegetation, and this opinion so far in¬ 
fluenced Mr. Knight, of the King’s Road, London, that he supplied 
the leaves of a plant with fine filaments of beef, and from that treat¬ 
ment it grew more luxuriant than some others in his possession which 
were not treated after that manner. This experiment goes far towards 
confirming the opinion that the dead insects are intended to supply 
the plant with animal manure. Dr. Barton, however, does not think 
it at all probable, that either this plant, or others which grow in rich, 
boggy, soil, can need additional stimulus. However, there is no doubt 
that some wise end is answered by so extraordinary a means. The 
plant grows in the bogs of Carolina, the flowers are white, and grow 
in corymbs, resembling Umbels. There are also several species of 
Sundew (Drosera), which exhibit a similar phenomenon in the leaves; 
those near the root are covered with long red bristles or hairs, bedewed 
with a sticky juice, possibly of a poisonous quality, especially des¬ 
tructive to insect life. If a fly settle on the upper surface of the leaf, 
it is first detained by clammy liquid, and then every hair turns in¬ 
wards, towards and over the insect, and remains curled, not only till 
the prisoner is dead, but until he is entirely consumed. The disc, 
which before was contracted and cone-like, then expands to its fullest 
breadth, and the hairs again become erect. It has, however, been 
thought, that its flv-catching powers only consist in the viscosity of 
the leaves and hairs, and that any movement in the latter may be 
accounted for on the hypothesis, that by the motion of the hairs or 
anv part of the leaf, others may come in contact with and adhere 
to them. Hence an insect touching the leaf would find no possibility 
of escape, for amidst these globules of slimy liquid, every struggle 
would but render its extrication more impossible. Scientific men 
are equally at a loss to account for the use of the fly-catching proper¬ 
ties of this plant, as they arc of that which exists in others. Some 
have thought it to act merclv in accordance with the law, by which 
one thing preys upon another, so that nothing may become too abun- 
