There is another small plant, called the sun-dew, which eats insects. Any of you who live near a cranberry bog can find sun-dew growing on the edges of the bog. It is a plant that lives in wet places. The sun-dew has a number of leaves about the size and shape of pearl shirt-buttons. They grow on short stems close to the ground. The leaves are covered with red hairs. These hairs are called tentacles. As many as a hundred and fifty will grow on one little leaf. From these long, red hairs come tiny drops of sticky stuff. These drops gleam like dew. From them, and the little red, hairy rays, the plant has its name. The insect comes flying by. The “dew” looks like something good to eat. But as soon as the insect touches the leaf, the juice holds its legs fast. The insect begins to kick, but cannot get away. The struggles of the insect seem to irritate the plant. For, when the hairs are touched, they pour out more juice. Not only this, but the touch of the insect on the hairs causes the leaf to bend upwards. It bends over, over, folding down, until it is all shut up upon the insect. Here is the insect held in the folded leaf. The glue runs out over it faster than ever. When you think how the insect breathes through tubes wound over all its body,[11] you will see that it must soon smother, held in this sticky juice. When the leaf is bent over the insect, the juice changes. When the leaf is so bent, the juice is acid, or sour. This acid juice melts up the body of the insect. As it melts, the mouths, or glands, of the leaf seem to suck it up. The sun-dew will melt up and devour bits of meat laid on the leaf. Water-drops on the leaf will not make it bend. But when milk-drops are put on the leaf, it bends, and sucks them up. The leaf will not close over a piece of stone, or glass. But it will close over a bit of boiled egg, or a scrap of bone. It melts the bone so soft, that you can stick a needle into it. Another animal-eating plant is the Venus’s-flytrap. It grows only in North Carolina. The leaf-blade has sharp bristles about the upper part. Each half of the leaf hollows a little, so that when the two halves come together they form a small pouch. The leaf has some fine hairs which an insect cannot but touch, when it moves on the leaf. When the hairs are touched, the leaf bends. The bristles on the edges lock together, so that the insect is held in a cage, even before the leaf closes. When the leaf is fully closed, the insect is held in a bag prison. The glands then pour out juice to melt up the body of the insect. As it melts, its juices are drawn into the plant. The Venus’s-flytrap does not seem to depend alone on the chance lighting of the insect upon it. It has a sweet juice on the leaf to attract insects. But it does not need as much sticky fluid as the sun-dew, to hold the insect. The two halves of the leaf snap together like a trap. They give the insect no time to get away.