On looking into the flower we perceive five Stamina, the Antherae of which are large, of a yellow colour, and converge into a kind of cone; each of these Antherae is arrow-shaped, towards the top of the cone their sides touch but do not adhere, below they separate a little, so as to leave a very narrow opening or slit between each, they are placed on very short filaments, which stand so far apart that a considerable opening is left between them, which openings, however, are closed up by processes of the corolla, nicely adapted to, and projecting into them; at the bottom of, and in the very centre of the flower, we perceive two germina, or seed-buds, the rudiments of future seed-vessels, surrounded by glandular substances, secreting a sweet liquid; on the summit of these germina, and betwixt the two, stands the stigma, in the form of a little urn, the middle of which is encircled by a glandular ring, which secretes a viscid honey-like substance, to this part of the stigma the Antherae interiorly adhere most tenaciously, so as to prevent their separation unless considerable force be applied; it is, as we apprehend, the sweet viscid substance thus secreted by the stigma, within the Antherae, which the fly endeavours to obtain, and to this end insinuates its trunk first into the lowermost and widest part of the slit, betwixt each of the Antherae above described, pushing it of necessity upwards: when gratified, not having the sense to place itself in the same position as that in which it stood when it inserted its trunk, and to draw it out in the same direction downwards, unfortunately for it, it varies its position, and pulling its trunk upwards, draws it into the narrow part of the slit, where it becomes closely wedged in, and the more it pulls the more securely it is caught, and thus this heedless insect, as THOMSON calls it, terminates its existence in captivity most miserable. In the incomparable poem of Dr. DARWIN, entitled the _Botanic Garden_, there is a figure given of this plant; and in the Supplement we have the following account written by Mr. DARWIN, of Elston. "In the Apocynum Androsaemifolium the Anthers converge over the nectaries, which consist of five glandular oval corpuscles, surrounding the germ, and at the same time admit air to the nectaries at the interstice between each anther; but when a fly inserts its proboscis between these anthers to plunder the honey, they converge closer, and with such violence as to detain the fly, which thus generally perishes." This explanation of a phaenomenon entitled to much attention, is widely different from ours; which of the two is most consonant to truth and nature, we shall leave to the determination of future observers.