. Botany for young people : Part II. How plants behave ; how they move, climb, employ insects to work for them, & c. Botany. 44 HOW CERTAIN PLANTS CAPTURK INSECTS. fly-catching. Moreover, in one of our species with longer leaves (Z). longifolia) the blade of the leaf itself incurves (as an intelligent lady has observed), so as to fold round its victim! i?arujio - <?/ "/^seci'<v^rj^s P/c,^^^ 96. Another and a most practised observer, -whose observations are not yet pub- lished, declares that the leaves of the common Round-leaved Sundew act differ- ently when different objects are
. Botany for young people : Part II. How plants behave ; how they move, climb, employ insects to work for them, & c. Botany. 44 HOW CERTAIN PLANTS CAPTURK INSECTS. fly-catching. Moreover, in one of our species with longer leaves (Z). longifolia) the blade of the leaf itself incurves (as an intelligent lady has observed), so as to fold round its victim! i?arujio - <?/ "/^seci'<v^rj^s P/c,^^^ 96. Another and a most practised observer, -whose observations are not yet pub- lished, declares that the leaves of the common Round-leaved Sundew act differ- ently when different objects are placed upon them. For instance, if a particle of raw meat be substituted for the living fly, the bristles will close upon it in the same manner; but to a particle of chalk or wood they remain nearly indifferent. If any doubt should still remain whether the fly-catching in Sundews is acciden- ' tal or intentional, -— in other words, whether the leaf is so constructed and ar- ranged in order that it may capture flies, — the doubt may perhaps disappear upon the contemplation of another and even more extraordinary plant of the same family with the Sundew, namely, 97. Venns's Flytrap, or Dionsea mnscipula. This plant abounds in the low savan- nas around Wilmington, North Carolina, and is native nowhere else. It is not very difficult to cultivate, at least for a time, and it is kept in many choice con- servatories as a vegetable wonder. 98. The trap is the end of the leaf (see Figs. 39, 40). It is somewhat like the leaf of Sundew, only larger, about an inch in diameter, with bristles still stouter, but only round the margin, like a fringe, and no clammy liquid or gland at their tips. The leaf folds on itself as if hinged at the midrib. Three more delicate bristles are seen on the face upon close inspection. When these are touched by the finger or the point of a pencil, the open trap shuts with a quick motion, and after a considerable interval it reopens. When a fly or other inse
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1872
