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Here is a curious plant, which is commonly called the hair plant.

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It has been named because it seems to live.

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While it has, these ruts merely serve to attach the plant to some firm support.

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The leaves are thrown away when they catch and hold rain water, and the plant is only

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found in tropical and semi-tropical regions where the rainfall is abundant.

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Our next plant oddity is the pitcher plant, which prefers a more balanced diet than the

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hair plant and supplements the nourishment supplied through its root system by catching

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insects.

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To accomplish this, the leaves grow in the form of pitchers, which collect rain water.

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The plant then produces a fluid which sweetens the rain water to attract insects.

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Some of these plants have bristle-like hairs pointing downward, which aid in trapping crawling

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insects.

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It is interesting to note that insects are rich in nitrogen value, and that nitrogen

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is very scarce in bogs and swampy places where these plants grow.

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Here is a different pitcher plant with an umbrella-like hood, which keeps out the rainwater.

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The plant itself produces all the liquid, which fills a long, slender pitcher to a depth

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of two or three inches.

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The surface around the opening to the pitcher is very smooth and slick, and is completely

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free from any hairs.

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The plant also has a decidedly intoxicating effect upon insects, which finally tumble

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right in and are forced down into the liquid by the bristles, which do grow on the inside

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near the base of the pitcher.

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If one of these pitchers is cut open, the entrapped insects are clearly seen, and in

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this case numbered almost 100.

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For those who collect miniatures, here is a much smaller species of pitcher plant, similar

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to the one just previously shown.

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Other types of tropical pitcher plants present unusual and grotesque shapes of pitchers such

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as this.

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Another fascinating insect-catching plant is the sundew.

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This plant is very small and is here seen through a magnifying lens.

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From the center of a rosette of leaves emerges the flower stalk with a curious, uncurling

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motion.

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Its leaves are covered with hair-like tentacles.

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At the end of each of these is a drop of sweet, sticky fluid, which glistens in the sun and

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attracts insects.

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When an insect touches one of these drops, it is caught fast, and then a most interesting

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process begins.

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By means of time-lapse photography, we speed up this process, and here see the tentacles

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of the sundew pass the insect toward the center of the leaf, which then envelops it.

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The sweet, sticky fluid changes to a sort of gastric juice, which enables this plant

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to assimilate the food value contained in the insect.

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After approximately ten days, the leaf opens again and is ready for another meal.

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This is truly a remarkable plant, but the strangest of all plant oddities might be considered

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the Venus flytrap, which also grows in wet, marshy places.

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The Venus flytrap has a cluster of small white flowers, but the most interesting part of

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this plant is the trap on the end of each leaf.

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On each flat surface of the trap are three tiny bristles, which, when touched, act like

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a trigger and spring the trap, which quickly snaps shut.

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Now we see a fly approaching dangerously close.

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Watch it.

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Ah, got him.

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The plant also seems to produce a nectar, which acts as a bait and attracts the fly

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right into the center of the trap.

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There we are.

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Bingo, another fly for dinner.

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This plant is called a sensitive plant, and in this time lapse picture we see the leaves

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fold each night as the plant goes to sleep.

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Returning to normal speed, we also see that the leaves are very sensitive and quickly

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fold if touched by some object.

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After they are once closed, it takes five or ten minutes for them to slowly open again.

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If a leaf is singed with a flame, the shock is greater, and the leaves not only fold,

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but the branches collapse.

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The shock is then transmitted through the plant's nervous system to other branches,

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which first collapse and then fold their leaves, one after another.

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A curious thing about the sensitive plant is that if administered ether and placed in

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an airtight compartment, it may be anesthetized so that it no longer shows any reaction.

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While it is still under the effect of ether, even the flame of a match does not affect

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it.

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However, after being in the open again, it soon begins to react in its normal way.

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Other plants, too, react to various conditions, and here we see seedlings straining to adjust

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their leaves to absorb as much light as possible.

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Here is a primrose wilting from lack of water, but when given a drink, it quickly revives.

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And the following picture shows through time-lapse photography the effect obtainable on plants

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by controlling the light, temperature, and moisture.

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.