Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1915 — Botanical Curiosity. [ARTICLE]

Botanical Curiosity.

Since 1893, when Prof John Mnirhead Macfarlane, now director of the botanical garden at the University of Pennsylvania, found that the leaves of the plant known as the Venus fly trap will dose up only If the trigger hairs are disturbed twice in succession, very little has "been learned about the physiology gs this curtOus inisecVcafchlhg

made that bring its behavior into line with the behavior of animals in certain respects. The leaves are sensitive to mechanical disturbances, .to electrical stimulation and to the sudden increase in temperature as through the application of warm water. At ordinary temperatures it takes two stimulations to get up the response; but at higher temperatures one “shock” wilt cause the leaf to close. At ordinary temperatures one electric shock will produce the effect If it is strong enough.