Summary edit

Text on the chromolithograph reverse: "Plate 247. Round-leaved Sun-dew. Drosera rotundifolia. (Sun-dew Family.) Leaves all radical, rosulate, on long slender ciliate petioles, orbicular, the margin fringed with viscid, gland-tipped, reddish hairs; scape slender, bearing a slender, few-flowered, one-sided raceme, uncoiling as the flowers expand; petals white, five or six; stames five or six. Few plants excite more general interest and concern than those that live wholly or partly on animal food. Not to mention the Bacteria and many of the Fungi that live parasitically on animals and man, there are isolated groups among the higher plants that support themselves to some extent by entrapping and assimilating the bodies of insects. The Pitcher-plants or Side-saddle flowers, species of Sarracenia, are good examples. Of the same habit are the smaller and less known Sun-dews, cousins to the famous Dionaea, Venus' Fly-Trap. The species of Drosera are natives of sandy bogs, mostly in temperate regions. The margin of the leaf is fringed with red hairs, each tipped with a round gland. From this glad exudes a drop of viscid liquid, that glistens in the sunlight; hence the pretty name, "Sun-dew." This strange secretion has much the same solvent power as gastric juice. When an unwary gnat or other insect alights on the surface of the leaf, the marginal hairs, as if they saw a dinner before them, bend in toward the centre of the leaf, cover the unfortunate visitor with their sticky secretion, and so hold him prisoner until the tissues of the leaf have digested as much of him as they can. Then the hairs return to their normal position, awaiting another meal. Rotundifolia is the most common species of Drosera in North America. It flowers in late summer."

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