. Botany all the year round; a practical text-book for schools. Botany. 56 THE LEAF. iaj. — a, Leaf of an agave, or American aloe, thickened for the storage of water; b and c, cross sections made at points indicated by the dotted lines. salad plants of the garden. In some of the fleshy stone- crops and purslanes, the leaves seem to have transformed them- selves into liviilg water bags. 70. Death Traps. — The sar- racenia, better known as the pitcher plant, or trumpet leaf, is a familiar example of these vegetable insect catchers. Its curious pitcher-shaped, or trum- pet-shaped leaves are traps
. Botany all the year round; a practical text-book for schools. Botany. 56 THE LEAF. iaj. — a, Leaf of an agave, or American aloe, thickened for the storage of water; b and c, cross sections made at points indicated by the dotted lines. salad plants of the garden. In some of the fleshy stone- crops and purslanes, the leaves seem to have transformed them- selves into liviilg water bags. 70. Death Traps. — The sar- racenia, better known as the pitcher plant, or trumpet leaf, is a familiar example of these vegetable insect catchers. Its curious pitcher-shaped, or trum- pet-shaped leaves are traps for the capture of the small game upon which the plant feeds. The lower part of the blade is transformed into a hollow vessel for holding water, and the top is rounded into a broad flap called the lamina. Sometimes the lamina stands erect, as in the common yellow trumpets of our coast regions, and when this is the case, it is brilliantly colored and attracts insects. Sometimes, as in the parrot-beaked and the spotted trumpet leaf (Fig. io8), it is bent over the top of the water vessel like a lid, and the back of the leaf, near the foot of the lamina, is dotted with transparent specks that serve to decoy foolish flies away from the true opening and tempt them to wear themselves out in futile efforts to escape, as we often see them do against a window pane. If the contents of one of these leaves are examined with a lens there will generally los. — Spotted be found mixed with the water at the bot- =^rracenia(6>aw- olaris) : /, lamina; tom, the remains of the bodies of a large j, transparent spots number of insects. Notice that the hairs ^"ft"''^^'''^)- on the outside all point up, towards the rim of the pitcher,. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Andrews, Eliza Frances, b. 1840
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1903
