It is of no use to liberate any of the smaller insects; every fly, removed from the leaf upon which it had been feeding, returned immediately it was at liberty to do so, and walked down the fatal cup as though drawn to it by a species of irresistible fascination.

It is not alone that flies and other small insects are overpowered by the fluid which exudes from the cord in question.  Even large insects succumb to it, although of course not so quickly.  Mrs. Treat says:  “A large cockroach was feeding on the secretion of a fresh leaf, which had caught but little or no prey.  After feeding a short time the insect went down the tube so tight that I could not dislodge it, even when turning the leaf upside down and knocking it quite hard.  It was late in the evening when I observed it enter; the next morning I cut the tube open; the cockroach was still alive, but it was covered with a secretion produced from the inner surface of the tube, and its legs fell off as I extricated it.  From all appearance the terrible Sarracenia was eating its victim alive.  And yet, perhaps, I should not say ‘terrible,’ for the plant seems to supply its victims with a Lethe-like draught before devouring them.”

If only a few insects alight upon a leaf, no unpleasant smell is perceptible during or after the process of digestion; but if a large number of them be caught, which is commonly the case, a most offensive odor emanates from the cup, although the putrid matter does not appear to injure in any manner the inner surface of the tube, food, even in this condition, being readily absorbed, and going to nourish the plant.  In fact, it would seem that the Sarracenia, like some animals, can feed upon carrion and thrive upon it.

In instances in which experiments have been made with fresh, raw beef or mutton, the meat has been covered in a few hours with the secretions of the leaves, and the blood extracted from it.  There is, however, one difference between the digesting powers of the leaves when exercised upon insects or upon meat.  Even if the bodies of insects have become putrid, the plant, as has already been stated, has no difficulty in assimilating them; but as regards meat, it is only when it is perfectly sweet that the secretions of the leaves will act upon it.

The pitcher plant undoubtedly derives its principal nourishment from the insects it eats.  It, too—­unlike most other carnivorous plants, which, when the quantity of food with which they have to deal is in excess of their powers of digestion, succumb to the effort and die—­appears to find it easy to devour any number of insects, small or large, the operation being with it simply a question of time.  Flies, beetles, or even cockroaches, at the expiration of three or four days at most, disappear, nothing being left of them save their wings and other hard, parts of their bodies.

The Sarracenia is, indeed, not only the most voracious of all known species of carnivorous plants, but the least fastidious as to the nature of the food upon which it feeds.—­W.C.M., Nature.