Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed]

CHAPTER XX.

PLATE XXXVIII. THE DIONEA MUSCIPULA.

The dionaa muscipula, or Venus's fly-trap. Some parts of this plant are so remarkable as to deserve a particular description. It is a native of North Carolina; the root perennial; leaves all radical, supported on long fleshy and strongly veined footstalks, leaving a small portion of this next the leaf naked: the leaf itself consists of two semi-oval lobes jointed at the back, so as to allow them to fold close together; they are fleshy, and when viewed through a lense glandular, sometimes of a reddish color on the upper surface; the sides of both lobes are furnished with a row of cartilaginous ciliæ which stand nearly at right angles with the surface of the leaf, and lock into each other when they close. Near the middle of each lobe are three small spines, which are supposed to assist in destroying the entrapped insect. In warin weather the lobes are fully expanded and highly irritable, and if a fly or other insect at this time light upon them they suddenly close, and the poor animal is imprisoned till it dies. See Curtis's Botanical Magazine, No. 785.

419

[blocks in formation]

FIG. 1, 2. The remarkable ring which surrounds the planet Saturn.

FIG. 3. The earth an oblate spheroid. See note, p. 217.
FIG. 4. See note, p. 220

FIG. 5. See note, p. 223.

FIG. 6. Centripetal forces illustrated. See notes, pp. 219, 226.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][graphic][subsumed][merged small]
« VorigeDoorgaan »