The Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).
The Sundews, of which we have three native species, must be sought out, for they seldom obtrude themselves on the attention of those whose eyes have not been trained to see them. They must be looked for in peat bogs, and in hollows on sandy heaths, where they grow in crowds. The leaves of D. rotundifolia arise from a slender rootstock, and lie on the ground in the form of a rosette, from the centre of which the tall slender flower-stalks appear in July and August. Each leaf bears near the upper margins several rows of long crimson glands, terminating in rounded heads, and reminding one of a sea-anemone’s tentacles; indeed, they serve a similar purpose. These glands secrete a clear sticky fluid, which serves to detain small insects that crawl over the leaf. Their efforts to free themselves irritate the glands, which all bend over to the insect; at the same time the margins of the leaf-blade begin to become incurved, and the insect is effectually secured in the hollow, ultimately being digested and the soft parts assimilated by the plant. Readers desiring to learn more of these curious habits of the plant are advised to grow it in a saucer of peat, and to read Mr. Darwin’s celebrated work on “Insectivorous Plants.”
The leaf in this species, as its name signifies, has a round blade, and this is attached to a long hairy leaf-stalk. In the Narrow-leaved Sundew (D. intermedia) the blade is spoon-shaped, and merges insensibly into the smooth leaf-stalk. In the third species, or Long-leaved Sundew (D. anglica) the entire leaf is similar to that of intermedia, but twice the length. In neither of the long-leaved species are the leaves laid flat as in rotundifolia; those of intermedia are erect, whilst those of anglica are borne half-erect. D. anglica is rare in the South of England; the others are well distributed. The name is derived from the Greek, Drosera, dewy, in allusion to the bedewed appearance of the leaves.
Barberry (Berberis vulgaris).
The Common Barberry is a spiny shrub, growing in hedge and copse, and brightening the spot from April to June with its strings of yellow flowers, and later in the year with its oblong red berries. Its shoots attain a height of from six to eight feet, and are clothed in a whitish bark, the wood being yellow. The flowers include eight or nine sepals and six petals: the outer sepals are very small and liable to be overlooked. The petals are in two series, and at the base of each petal are two honey-secreting glands, which induce the visits of honey-loving insects. There are six stamens, which ordinarily lie along the centre of the petals, their bases highly irritable. In an open flower like this any insect can get at the honey, but it is not easy to do so without touching the base of one of the stamens; on this being done the stamen springs forward, and the anthers strike the insect, dusting it with pollen, and in some cases driving it away. This mechanism may be tested by touching the base of a stamen with the point of a pin.
The Barberry is very liable to the attacks of a minute fungus, a stage in the development of wheat-rust (Uredo graminis). The name Berberis is the Arabic title of the plant.
Barberry.
Berberis vulgaris.
—Berberideæ.—
