Plants -- Identification; Wild flowers -- Great Britain
When minute animals enter the cavity of the leaf through the little
openings above mentioned, they are seized by means of small filaments
that protrude from the lining cells; and although no special digestive
secretion has been discovered in the leaves, it appears certain that the
creatures entrapped are really dissolved, for nothing remains of them
after a time except the harder, indigestible portions. Also, there is
every reason to believe that the products of digestion are absorbed,
probably by the same filaments that are concerned in the capture of the
microscopic prey.
Perhaps the most interesting of the carnivorous plants are those which
exhibit distinct movements in connexion with the capture of their prey,
and among these are the British Butterworts and Sundews, which grow in
bogs and other wet places.
There are three British species of Butterwort (_Pinguicula_), similar in
structure and habit, all growing in bogs and on wet rocks. They have
each a rosette of entire, radical leaves, the lowest of which lie close
against the soil or rock on which the plant grows; and violet or yellow
flowers on leafless peduncles. The calyx has four or five teeth,
arranged in two lips; and the corolla, which is also lipped, has a
broad, open throat, and a spur.
The commonest species is the Common Butterwort (_P. vulgaris_), which is
found in bogs and wet places, principally in the hilly, humid districts
of the West of Britain and Ireland, flowering from May to July. Its
leaves are succulent and clammy, of a pale green colour, and covered all
over with little glistening spots. The flower stems are three or four
inches high, each bearing a single violet flower. In this species the
throat of the corolla is bell-shaped, and the spur is as long as the
rest of the corolla.
A second species--the Alpine Butterwort (_P. alpina_)--with smaller,
pale yellow flowers appearing in June and July, is found only in
Scotland; while a third, known as the Pale Butterwort (_P. lusitanica_),
also with pale yellow flowers, and a curved spur, occurs in South-West
England as well as in the boggy districts of Ireland and the West of
Scotland, flowering from June to October.
The carnivorous habits of all species are the same. The horizontal
leaves lie flat on the wet soil, with their margins turned upward
forming a kind of shallow trough; and the upper surface of each is
dotted with many hundreds of minute glands which secrete a colourless,
sticky fluid, thus giving to the leaf its glistening and clammy
appearance.
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