124 
NATURE STUDY. 
rain. But touch a leaf repeatedly with some solid sub¬ 
stance. After a while it will begin to show signs of pecu¬ 
liar activity. The hair-like, gland-bearing tentacles re¬ 
ceive some sort of an impulse which causes them to slowly 
bend inward, If a small solid object, like a bit of glass, 
is placed on a leaf, the tentacles will, in the course of a few 
hours, close in upon it and thus imprison it. Since the ob¬ 
ject is in this case insoluble, no digestion can take place, 
and after a while the tentacles resume their normal posi¬ 
tion. With a digestible object the case is different. The 
evidences of excitement are more marked. If a bit of meat 
is placed on the center of the disc, the tentacles are not 
only inflected towards and over it, but their glands pour 
forth an increased amount of the fluid secretion. 
Now what happens when the proper prey of Drosera, a 
fly or beetle or other insect, comes along ? The fly either 
alights on it as a resting place, or is attracted by the odor 
or by the glittering drops, perhaps by both. Darwin was 
quite sure certain insects he observed were led to the plants 
by the odor. The unsophisticated fly alights, at any rate. 
The next thing he knows, his legs are caught in the sticky 
diamonds and he cannot release himself. It is to the credit 
of Drosera that it does not prolong the agony of the poor 
fly through the gradual stages of imprisonment, else he 
would suffer all the horrors of long-drawn waiting for death, 
like some of those victims of mediaeval cruelty depicted by 
Poe. Fortunately for the fly, the viscid secretion closes his 
tracheae, and he experiences, very likely, a sort of euthan¬ 
asia, like being drowned in nectar. The more he strug¬ 
gles, the sooner his relief comes, for in his struggles he 
touches more and more of the glands, a larger quantity of 
the secretion is poured forth, and thus he is drowned the 
quicker. 
Sympathy for the fly being no longer uppermost in our 
thoughts, we may now follow the remains' with equanimi- 
