126 
NATURE STUDY. 
sufficient quantity of their native soil to ensure continued 
life and growth. These then may be watched day after 
day for months, perhaps all winter, and their habits ob¬ 
served. Numberless experiments may be made with them. 
They may be fed or starved, and notes made of the differ¬ 
ing results. Their digestive powers may be tested with all 
sorts of food. Records of the time of action under excite¬ 
ment of the various parts, and of their reaction after ex¬ 
citement, will be of special interest. Entomologists will 
find endless entertainment in observing the number and 
species of insects which come within the range of the 
plant’s influence. It is not impossible, notwithstanding 
the long and patient researches of Darwin and others, that 
absolutely new discoveries may be made. A point which 
still needs investigation is the source of the motor-impulse 
which is transmitted through the glands to the tentacles 
and produces the subsequent motion of those parts. The 
action is apparently similar to'nerve action in animals ; but 
as plants have no central organ, and therefore no proper re¬ 
flex action, the similarity must rather be apparent than 
real. 
A Squirrel's Dry-House. 
BY EDWARD J. BURNHAM. 
The squirrel has for so long been associated in the pop¬ 
ular mind with nuts, that comparatively few people have 
ever reflected upon the many vicissitudes which must have 
driven him, at one time and another, to seek a greater va¬ 
riety of fo :>d. The squirrel has been pictured time out of 
mind with tail over back and a nut between his fore paws. 
In museums his stuffed skin is made to assume the con¬ 
ventional form, while countless books for children have 
pointed the moral to be found in his indefatigable industry 
