Drosera rotundifolia (p. 10) drawn by George Darwin (son) from Charles Darwin's Insectivorous plants. London: John Murray. (1875) and modern photo of Drosera plant with small prey. Darwin wrote in his autobiography: "During subsequent years,whenever I had leisure,I pursued my experiments,and my book on Insectivorous Plants was published July 1875,â€"that is sixteen years after my first observations. The delay in this case,as with all my other books,has been a great advantage to me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work,almost as well as if it were that of another person. The fact that a plant should secrete,when properly excited,a fluid containing an acid and ferment,closely analogous to the digestive fluid of an animal,was certainly a remarkable discovery" |