Читать книгу Intelligence in Plants and Animals онлайн

25 страница из 113

With the edges of its leaves curled so as to form a temporary stomach, and with the glands of its closely-inflected tentacles pouring forth their truly acid secretion, which dissolves animal matters that are subsequently absorbed, Drosera may be said to feed like an animal. But, unlike an animal, it drinks by means of its roots, and largely, too, for it would not be able to supply its glands with the necessary viscid fluid. The amount needed is by no means an inconsiderable quantity, as two hundred and seventy drops may sometimes be exposed during a whole day to a glaring sun. Such a profuse exudation implies preparations for hosts of insect visitors. In this Drosera has not miscalculated. Its bright pink blossoms and brilliant, glistening dew lure vast numbers of the smaller kinds, and the larger ones, too, to certain death. But the wholesale destruction of life that goes on is much in excess of what the plant requires for food. While the smaller flies remain adherent to the leaves, affording them the needed aliment, the larger insects, after death, fall around the roots, where they decay and fertilize the soil with nitrogen, which doubtless through the proper channels makes its way into the body of the plant, thus helping to give it tone and vigor. There are times when these plants work better than at others, but whether this is caused by the electrical condition of the atmosphere, or the amount of its contained moisture, is a question which science has not positively determined.