[ 867 ]
D R O S E R A rotundifolia,
Round-leaved Sun-dew.
IfoOj
PENTANDRIA Hexagynia.
Qeh. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Petals 5. Capf. fuperior
of 1 cell, with 3 valves. Seeds many.
Spec. Char. Leaves orbicular, radical, deprefled.
Footftalks hairy. Stalk bearing a fimple racemus.
S vn. Drofera rotundifolia. Linn. Sp. P i. 402. Sm .Fl.
B rit. 346. Hudf. 135. With. 32,3. plull. 67.
Relh. 131. Sihth. 106. Abbot. 71,
Ros fobs folio rotund Rail Svn. 356.
F T* ” ' -L<VERY Drofera hitherto difcovered grows in boggy fitua-
tions. Our Britifh fpecies are far from uncommon in very wet
black fpongy bogs, for the moft part over a gravelly or fandy
foil. They flower in July and Auguft, and are all, we believe,
perennial.
The rotundifolia is perhaps the moft common. Its root is
black and fibrous. Leaves numerous, on hairy footftalkJ,
radical, deprefled, and forming a fort of ftar on the ground or
furrounding mofs, very confpicuous by their mingled green and
red colour, the latter of which chiefly refides in the numerous
glandular briftles, each tipped with a clear vifcid globule, which
ornament the margin and furface of the leaves, and which, by
a degree of irritability lately obferved by fome naturalifts, are
thought to contract, and to imprifon infedts, like the Canadian
Dioncea, a plant of the fame Natural Order, This irritability,
if it exifts, is only to be detected in hot funny days, nor indeed
do the flowers expand in any other weather, A few ereft
fimple naked ftalks rife from the crown of the root, each
bearing a Ample racemus, or rather, perhaps, a fpike, of white
or bluth-coloured flowers, with always 5 petals and as many
ftamina, and 3 pair of fpreading recurved ftyles. The parts
of fructification have not been found to vary in number in
this fpecies. Sometimes the ftalk is reported to be branched.