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Show 294: IJARWINIANA. this fluid is always poured out around the captured insect in due -time, "if the leaf is in good condition and the prey suitable ; " that it comes from the leaf itself, and not from the decomposing insect (for, when the.trap caught a plum-curculio, the fluid was poured out while he was still alive, though very weak, and endeavoring, ineffectually, to eat his way out); that bits of raw beef, although sometimes rejected after a while, were generally acted upon in the same manner- i. e., closed down upon tightly, slavered with the liquid, dissolved mainly, and absorbed; so that, in fine, the fluid may well be said to be analogous to the gastric juice of animals, dissolving the prey and renderinO' it fit for absorption by the leaf. Many leaves 0 . remain inactive or slowly die away after one meal; others reopen for a second and perhaps even a third capture, and are at least capable of digesting a second meal. Before Mr. Canby's experiments had been made, we were aware that a similar series had been made in England by Mr. Darwin, with the same results, and with a small but highly-curious additional onenamely, that the fluid secreted in the t.r:ap of Diomea, like the gastric juice, has an acid reaction. Having begun to mention unpublished results (too long allowed to remain so), it may be well, under the circumstances, to refer to a still more remarkable experiment by the same rriost sagacious investigator. By a prick with a sharp lancet at a certain point, he has been able to paralyze one-half of the leaf-trap, so that it remained motionless under the stimulus to which the other half responded. Such high and sensitive organ- INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 295 ization entails corresponding ailments. Mr. Canby tells us that he gave to one of his Dionrea-subjects a fatal dyspepsia by feeding it with cheese· and under Mr. ~arwin's hands another suffers from ~araplegia. Fmally, Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's experiments detailed at the last meeting of the British Associ~tion for the Advancement of Science, show that the same electri.cal currents a~'e developed upon the closing of the Dwnrea-trap as m the contraction of a muscle. If the V enus's Fly-trap stood alone, it would be doubly marvelous-first, on a·ccount of its carnivorous propensities, and then as constituting a real anomaly in organic Nature, to which nothing leads up. Before acquiescing in such a conclusion, the modern naturalist would scrutinize its relatives. Now, the nearest relatives of our vegetable wonder are the sundews. While Dionrea is as local in habitation as it is singular in structure and habits, the Droseras or sundews are widely diffused over the world and numerous in species. The two whose captivating habits have attracted attention abound in bogs all around the northern hemisphere. That flies are caught by them is a • matter of common observation; but this was thought to be purely accidental. They spread out from the root a circle of small leaves, the upper face of which especially is beset and the margin fringed with stout bristles (or what seem to be such, although the structure is more complex), tipped by a secreting gland, ·which produces, while in vigorous state, a globule of clear liquid like a drop of dew-whence the name, both Greek and English. One expects these seeming dew-drops to be dissipated by the morning sun ; but |