p.24

418

grass, about ditches and other wet places. Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and
at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It possesses no agricultural value.

3. Leersia Lenticularis. Michaux.

Syn. - L. ovata Poir. Fly-catch grass.

Stem erect; Panicle erect; spy clips large, roundish, invocated;
stamens two; paleae with the keel and veins ciliate. Perennial; flowers in July; culms 2 to 4 feet high.

Found in wet places in Ohio and Illinois, but rarely. Pursh* calls it
a singular and elegant grass, and informs us that he observed it catching
flies in the same manner as the Dionaea muscipula (Venus' fly-trap); the
paleae being nearly of the same structure as the leaves of that plant.

The figures I have given [plate I, fig. 1,] of the paleae of this species
will explain to the eye in whatever manner this fly-catching is performed, if
at all. It is difficult to understand how insects can be "retained as in a
trap by the proboscis," as suggested by Mr. Nuttall,^1 inasmuch as the
ciliatures are all directed upwards, and would rather prevent the entrance
than the exit of the insect. If caught at all, it must be by the
closing of the valves by some spontaneous motion like that of the sensitive
plant. I am indebted to Dr. A. Gray for specimens of the flowers
of this plant, from which the drawings were made; and also to Dr.
Geo. Engleman, of St. Louis, for specimens and important information
in regard to this and other species of grass.

Plate 1. Figure 1.

a a flower of the natural size.
b the same magnified.
c the paleae opened, showing the nature of the "fly-trap."
d a flower.
e an anther.
f the germ and stigmas.
g the spines, or ciliatures, much magnified.

----

* Flora, Fol. I., p. 62.

^1 Genera of N. Am. Plants, Vol. I., p. 43.