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Show 320 DARWINIAN A. ers, with variously less efficient and less advantageou.sly' arranged insectivorous apparatus, which, in the language of the new science, may be either ou the way to acquire something better, or of 1osing what they may have had, while now adapting themselves to a proper vegetable life. There is one member of the family (Droso_phyllumLusitanicum), an almost shrubby plant, which grows on dry and sunny hills in Portugal and Morocco-which the villagers call "the fly-catcher," and hang up in their cottages for the purpose-the glandular tentacles of which have wholly lost their powers of movement, if they ever had any, but which still secrete, digest, and absorb, being roused to great activity by the contact of any animal matter. .A friend · of ours once remarked that it was fearful to contemplate the amount of soul that could be called forth in a dog by the sight of a piece of meat. Equally wonderful is the avidity for animal food manifested by these vegetable tentacles, that can "only stand and wait" for it. Only a brief chapter is devoted to Dionma of North Carolina, the V en us's fly-trap, albeit, "from the rapidity and force of its movements, one of the most wonderful in the world." It is of the same family as the sundew ; but the action is transferred from tentacles on the leaf to the body of the leaf itself, which is transformed into a spring-trap, closing with a sudden movement over the alighted insect. No secretion is provided beforehand either for allurement or detention; but after the captive is secured, microscopic glands within the surface of the leaf pour ont an abundant gastric juiee to digest it. Mrs. Glass's INSEOT!VOROUS AND CLIMBING PLANTS. 321 classical directions in the cook-book, "first catch your hare," are implicitly followed. Avoiding here all repetition or recapitulation of our former narrative, suffice it now to mention two interesting recent additions to our knowledge, for which we are indebted to Mr. Darwin. One is a research, the other an inspiratiOJ?.. It is mainly his investigations which have shown that the glairy liquid, which is poured upon and macerates the captured insect, accomplishes a true digestion; that, like the gastric juice of animals, it contains both a free acid and pepsin or its analogue, these two together dissolving albumen, meat, and the like. The other point relates to the significance of a peculiarity in the process of capture. When the trap suddenly incloses an insect which has betrayed its presence by touching one of the internal sensitive bristles, the closure is at first incomplete. For the sides approach in an arching way, surrounding a considerable cavity, and the marginal spine-like bristles merely intercross their tips, leaving intervening spaces through which one may look into the cavity beneath. A good idea may be had of it by bringing the two palms near together to represent the sides of the trap, and loosely interlocking the fingers to represent the marginal bristles or bars. After remaining some time in this position the clost~re is made complete by the margins coming into full contact, and the sides finally flattening down so as to press firmly upon the insect within ; the secretion excited by contact is now poured out, and digestion begins. Why these two stages~ Why should time be lost by this preliminary and incomplete closing'~ The query probably was |