The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-04-18
INSECT-EATING PLANTS
Vegetable Life That Feeds on Animal
Food With the Avidity of Car
Cleveland Leader.

| Plants really are living beings, the same
as animals, and, like the latter, they are
| obliged to absorb nourishment to develop
| them and to remain alive. But since
| they cannot, as do the beings of superior
species, go in search of this nourishnent
most Of them depend on their leaves to
draw moisture from the air and their
| roots to absorb food from the earth.
Some, however, do not content thtm-
selves with the food obained in this way
from the air and earth. They vary tleir
diet with a little animal food.
The most remarkable of these CANT
verous or animal-eating plants is The
Venus fly trap, which is common in
North Carolina All its leaves radiste
from the root, and form spreaddlt
rosette. strong vein extends from the
base to the summit and their edges ate
furnished with stiff, spiny hairs.
Each half Of the leaf presents d slightly
concave surface. strewn with giant.
| These glands distill liquor with attrads
! insects.
The stiff hairs on the edges are PLACID
in such a manner that the insect whih
| hovers near the leaf is almost certain b.
fore long to touch one of the hairs. AMI
as these are endowed with great irrita BIZ
lty When they are touched the two lobe5
OF the leaf close quickly, one shutti1E
against the other, and they interlace ther
splny lashes so firmly that the prey whia
they have siezed cannot escape. So lo1t
as the insect struggles the leaves remai
closed. -Aszsoon as it ceases to move tn
lobes open lightly. The leaf secretes ,
digestive juice similar to the gastric juic,
Of the human stomach, and the prey i,
slowly dissolved and absorbed.
| In france there is a p liant found fre1
| quently in marshy places, which is named
the Rossolis. 1t has the same properties
! as the Venus. Its leaves are covered
l hoi Tho
| of which resemble small drops of dew.
| They close up if an insect touches them,
| but If a bit of mineral substance is
| placed on them, neither the leaves nor
| hairs make movement. It is only when
! an insect touches them that they close up
Another plant. the darlingtonia feeds on
| insects, but in different way Its leaves
form species of urn. which ordinarily
holds some water. On the inside there is
! also some honey. which attracts the in
sect. These unhappy animals slip at the
smooth incline, fall to the bottom and
cannot get up again, for there are sharp
| hairs that are directed from the top to-
| ward the bottom to prevent them.
Little by little the plant absorbs them
! just as does the Venus. But it has an adj
! vantage over the latter. 1t can save it's
| food If it does not wish to eat it at once
It's urn is larder in which it can heap
| it's provisions up. forming a bountiful re-
| serve Oh winch IL may draw when 1t is
| hungry
If the provision is too abundant for its
consumption. the dead insects give birth
| to a great quantity of larvae. which grow
| and develop quickly in this leafy medium
and offer for the appetite of the greedy
| darlingtonia choice food-tender fresh
and increasingly renewed.
| Another plant is the serpentaire whose
large, funnel-shaped flower exhales an
| insupportable deadly odor. which at
| tracts lilies from a distance. They pre-
ciptate themselves to the bottom of the
| tube Of flower which secretes the sicken-
| ing juice and die together. Then the
I serpentaire, like the Venus, absorbs and
| devOurs them.