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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/428

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424
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with it here, as in the stomachs of animals, a coagulating principle, a rennet. In some manner difficult to guess the shepherds of the Alps learned years ago that the leaf of the butterwort placed in fresh milk would cause it to thicken rapidly, and to this day they use these leaves rather than the animal extract in the making of curd for cheese.

Fig. 7. The Californian Pitcher plant. The white spots are the false windows, and in the head to the left, which has been torn open, may be seen the mouth, situated just behind the hanging appendage.

The sun-dew (Drosera) is one of the best known of the insectivorous plants of this class, both because of the wide distribution of the ninety species over the world and on account of the detailed and patient study of it which was made by Darwin, whose Insectivorous Plants' is a rich mine of information for any one interested in