The American Naturalist Volume 3 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: may afford rational ground for guess-work. Will not some one having the opportunity make observations on these singular organs in the living plant, in order to settle their function? We know not anywhere else in the vegetable kingdom organs more apparently set apart for a special purpose, and yet we are in doubt about their meaning. Our native Sarracenia growing abundantly in swamps, with its cups, often the graves of drowned flies, is also called a pitcher plant, but differs widely in structure and habit from the Nepenthes. We allude to it now only to express our intention, if opportunity should offer, to illustrate its singular structure, as well as that of others of these remarkable plants, which nature seems to have appointed to set their traps among the swamps, but for what purpose, perhaps, we are not ready to explain. We have been assisted in illustrating this paper by Miss Mary Peart and Miss Emma Walter, and the drawings were made from specimens in our possession. THE COMPRESSED BURBOT OR EEL-POUT. BY WILLIAM WOOD, M. D. Of the genus Lota, there are several species. The English Bin-bolt (Burbot), as described by Yarrell in his work on British fishes, and by Couch, belongs to this genus, yet probably is a different species from any in our lakes and rivers. Couch says, "the Burbolt (Burbot) is the only one of the extensive family of the codfishes which has its residence in fresh water, where it is distinguished by exhibiting some ofthe manners of the eel, by which it has obtained the name of the eel-pout." Lota compnsm Lesueur. AMEK. NATUHALIST, VOL. III. 3 In this country, according to DeKay, we have three species: the Plain Burbot (Lota inornata) which is rare, the Spotted Burbot (Lota maculosa) which is abundant in our lakes, and the Compressed Bur...