Even if they have wings, it is difficult for them to fly upward in so straight a line as would be necessary to effect their escape. When tired out in their efforts to get out of this cruel trap, they fall into the water at the bottom of the pitcher, and are drowned. Their bodies decay and dissolve; and it is thought that this solution is taken in by the leaf, and turned over to the plant as food. It is just the old, sad story of the spider and the fly, you see, only now it is the pitcher and the fly. But be sure to examine one of these pitchers if you possibly can, and then you will understand better how the whole thing is managed. The leaf in this picture (Fig. 153), for it is a leaf, you cannot find in our North American swamps. It grows on a plant called _Nepenthes_, a plant which lives in hot countries far from the United States. [Illustration: FIG. 153] The leaf in the picture is full grown, and all ready for its work of trapping animals. Before it was old enough to do this, the lid which is now lifted was laid nicely across the opening to the pocket, and so prevented any unseasonable visits. Sometimes these pockets are so large as to be able to hold and to hide from sight a pigeon. They are gayly colored, and the rim around their border is covered with a sugary, tempting juice. So you can guess that the animals in search of nectar are not slow in accepting the invitation offered by color and sweets, and that some of these are imprudent enough to venture across the sticky edge. In this event they are pretty sure to lose their footing on the slippery inner surface of the pocket, and to fall into the watery liquid with which it is filled. Even if they do not slip immediately, their efforts to crawl back over the rim are defeated by a row of teeth such as you see in the picture. The liquid at the bottom of the leaf is not rain water, as in the pitcher plant. It is given out by the leaf itself; and it contains an acid which dissolves the animals’ bodies, so that their more nourishing parts can easily be taken in by certain little cells which line the lower part of the pocket, and which have been brought up to this work. [Illustration: FIG. 154]