230 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
drink. Intead of getting water they find themselves 
glued to the leaf ; the more they struggle to escape 
the more glued do they become. Then, horror of 
horrors! huge sticky tentacles, more monstrous than 
those of the Octopus, gradually close in upon them, 
and they realize that death is inevitable. The 
death is prolonged and cruel; a burning fluid is 
poured upon them, eating like a virulent acid 
through skin and flesh right into the bones. Surely 
the Sundew gives us an idea for a fairy tale as 
wonderful as any that Hans Andersen or Grimm 
ever imagined ! ; 
It is not long since botanists got to know the 
insectivorous habits of the Butterwort and the 
Sundew. Had they been known in the days of 
superstition they would undoubtedly have been 
made the subjects of some terrible yarns, and 
possibly the plants would have been looked upon as 
agents of the infernals. Silly, ignorant men and 
women would have avoided them as the super- 
stitious avoid graveyards at night. 
There are many strange superstitions connected 
with plants, though happily the spread of knowledge 
is rapidly killing them. It used to be thought that 
the Hilder was a powerful protection against evil, 
and that in its presence witches could do no harm. 
That is why people used to plant Elders either at 
the entrances to their houses, or in the hedges round 
their gardens. Even at the present time hedges of 
Elder are common round old country houses, al- 
though nowadays few people know of the ancient 
superstition. Napier, in his ‘‘ Folk-Lore,”’ Says : 
“In my boyhood I remember that my brothers, 
