The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-25

had partly fallen into the, water At- ter several hours the immersed portion had become white and apparently life less. while the upper portion was alive and still struggling,
 In some pitcher plants the "ase IS brought up into sort of hood or dome, with the entrance at one side and below There are thin patches on this dome or cupola, and small in sects, attracted by the light which comes through these bare places re- main, dashing themselves against them or crawling over them, just as flies do on a window pane. until they become tired and fall down into the water below.
 Tn another pitcher plant, Nepen- thes, so-called, we find an even more beautifully arranged pitcher. In this plant, however, it is only the end of rather long leaf, or rather of it's mid rib, that is turned up to act as d pitcher There are similar stiff hairs pointed downward, and honey is plen- tifully secreted But in Nepenthes there is also distinct secretion which digests the bodies of the drowning in sects. The ferment resembles the &C., tive principle of the gastric and pam creatic juices of the human body, and as acids are also present the insects body becomes changed into nutritious juices which readily diffuse into the plant. One observer found that when the pitchers were stimulated by being given insects the liquid inside them could digest fibrin to jelly in from three- quarters to one hours time.
 Have you ever heard of plant that has indigestion? Darwin, the naturalist discovered that the sun dew is very human indeed, and not only human, but blood-thirsty as well. l As far back as 17SO it was known that this plant not only caught in sects, but also devoured them. The l plant, which is common here, grows 1 from four to ten inches high and flow CTS in July and August among the
 bogs in sandy and sunny marshes It
 bears an open rosette of round or broad leaves, clothed with reddish
 bristly hairs, tipped with purple
 glands; the flowers are small and
 white, growing similarly. to the lily Of the valley, and usually have five pet
 als. Probably one little blossom will
 be open to the sunshine, It's leaves
 shining with something that resem.
 bles dew. The hairs or tentacles, oi
 which there are about two hundred
 on single leaf, secrets this glistenine
 sticky fluid.
 An insect flying about near tho
 sundew is sure to be attracted by tn, conspicuous glittering, reddish leaves and probably alights upon it. Thel
 it finds itself caught and begins t, struggle, but this simply brings i against more tentacles Now happens the most wonderful part of the who'll performance. All the neghborinl tentacles, although they have no been touched. bend over toward tn struggling insect and pin 1t down j. the middle of the leaf. They do no i, bend over very quickly. It takes then
 ten minutes to bend over ninety de r grees At the same time acids an, ferments are poured out which diges the insect. It takes about two day
 for leaf to finish off an insect an
 then the tentacles again unclose.
 The point which is so difficult { understand is to know how those un :, touched tentacles know that the in sect is there and exactly where it i, i. There is no doubt that they do know = for they behave exactly as if the Y were the arms of spider. If you pu !, two insects on either side of the mid
 dle of the leaf half the tentacles wi f pin down one and the other half wi ', deal with the other insect
 f Moreover, 1t is exceedingly difficu to deceive those tentacles. They wi z bend in for the tiniest piece of usefl e substance. but shower of heav ,, rain. grains of sand or other useles Q material will not cause any secretion d and even if they do bend in a littl ,r they soon discover their mistake an r. stand out again
 a Prof. Darwin fed these leaves wit n variety of articles and found thf ,- they digested pollen, seeds and gras o They refused, however, to try to e; m chalk or wood He also poisoned the, .s with acids and gave them fatal a if tacks of Indigestion caused by ove as feeding on bits of raw meat.
 f The plant that catches the mo VI diverse lot of animals is the inco, If spicuous and ugly little bladderwo, ,d In July and August it's yellow Howe ol may be seen adorning many of o- ,f ponds and ditches Unless it happe, ar to be in flower it Is difficult to S, N the plant as it is entirely submerg,
 in the water. On these submerg, ts leaves there are hundreds of sm; I bladders, whence the common nam to They are about the size of a nc m and the entrance has the appearan te Of tunnel net, or eel pot alwa nh open at the large end, but closed
 the other extremity The net is siI in ply a valve or flap, turned in fro ti- the mouth of the bladder, with f ch outer edge surrounded with a den
 mass of hairs. which impei the a, =. maj forward and prevent the DOS
 bility of retreat
 El,t1n