SUNDEW FAMILY.
DROSERACEÆ.
| Sundew. | Drosera rotundifolia. |
Found on swampy ground in July and August.
A little plant growing close to the earth and sending up a flowering stem about 3 or 4 inches in height.
The small, round leaves, slightly hollowed like a shallow saucer, are tough, light green in color, and covered with short, curling, red hairs that exude a clear gummy liquid from their tips; they are set on short, flat stems, and arranged in a tuffet.
The small flower has its parts sometimes in fives and again in sixes; their white petals are rounded at the tips, and the calyx is light green; they are placed in a close, one-sided spire, that curls over at the tip, on the top of a slender, erect, red stem, rising from the middle of the leaf-cluster.
The red hairs on the leaves tipped with clear fluid sparkle as though with dew; this is the gummy substance that catches the unwary insects which alight and detains them to their everlasting doom,—it is said that this hairy little vegetable has a cannibal’s appetite for flesh, and draws nourishment from these victims. The Sundew grows close among the pale green swamp-moss, and can only be detected by close observation; when in bud it can be more easily discovered through its red flower-stem. It is extremely difficult to find it in blossom or to decide as to the conditions favorable to its unfolding,—when at length surprised, it will be found with only one flower open, its face set toward the zenith.