VORACIOUS PUNT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 425, 18 August 1908, Page 4

VORACIOUS PUNT.

The voraciousness of plants was a subject touched on by Mr G. M. Thompson during a lecture in Dunedin recently. He spoke of a species of sundew which in many places grows in profusion about the Bluff, and. which displays long, tempting looking leaves or branches as a resting-place for flies. Immediately a fly rests there, however, it becomes a fixture, by reason of a glutinous substance which the plant has upon its leaves and branches. Finally the fly is engulfed in the leaf, for the strange thing, immediately it has the fly firmly, rolls itself round the little creature, discharges upon it a secretion not unlike animal saliva, and in a very short time assimilates *it. When the plant unrolls again to await another victim, all that remains of the unfortunate insect are its wings. The remainder constitutes part of the plant. Mr Thompson said that he fed this queer plant on pieces of beef and mutton, which it accepted eargly ; it would not take a stone, however, or anything yielding no sustenance. It took a piece of cheese, “ but,” he said, “ it suffered from an acute fit of indigestion.” Another plant he described as common to New Zealand has all holes around its base, into which insects creep for shelter. By these means the hungry vegetable catches its victim, asphyxiates and slowly digests it.