Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-09-27 | Page 47 | Plants That Feed on Insects

Flauts That Teed on Insects. In marshy, N.-jy V'lace& tlvrc rou son;-1 curious ;"i;inis whicli hri'-c the hsbit of teedhiir on in-cvt. i'he "-oil tiiey uruw in is re!'Ot--Kie I or this habit . ;is it aocs not coiu:uu the n.trc-irou n.trc-irou :md suli'ihur which plants require, so they nubi et ilicsc cirmcnts the best thev can. They do so bv preying ou small Insects, t ho juices ot whose bodies 1 u r d i a i h e n i with what thev Deed. The sundew is a harmless looking little lit-tle plsnt which I have on en met rn bojrv spots in Maine, and which may be louud in other s rates. Us round leaves, spread out in rose: to fashion near the ground arc covered with fine red hairs slight iy bulbous ar t ho cml. The color and ihe smell vi a sticky liquid with which the io;ios are covered cov-ered attracts insects. When one of these alights on tho leaf, the hairs close iti from all sides and hold the foolish visitor fast until, with t ho aid of the fluid pour in nut from the tiny glands at the end of the hairs, the plant has well digested it. In North Carolina cfrovrs the Venus 's fly-trap, a small plant only a low ; inches hiph, which has a deadly trap for i n sects. The loaves which crow from the root arc rather long and are divided crosswise into two parts. The portion at tho cud has a st tons hinge up the middle, and its two edge fringed with hair close over the insect which alights on it. The lea I' stay shut anywhere from nine to twenty-four twenty-four hours. The pitcher plants, several varieties of which grow in the United States, catch their insect s in pitchers formed bv tho growing Together of a. long lea; at its edges. Mabel B. Goodianer in the Churchman.