Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BUTTERWORT

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 890 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BUTTERWORT , the popular name of a small insectivorous plant, Pinguicsda vulgaris, which grows in wet, boggy See also:

land. It is a See also:herb with a rosette of fleshy, oblong leaves, 1 to 3 in. See also:long, appressed to the ground, of a See also:pale See also:colour and with a sticky See also:surface. Small See also:insects See also:settle on the leaves and are caught in the viscid See also:excretion. This, like the excretion of the See also:sundew and other insectivorous See also:plants, contains a See also:digestive ferment (or See also:enzyme) which renders the nitrogenous substances of the See also:body of the See also:insect soluble, and capable of absorption by the See also:leaf. In A, leaf of Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) with See also:left margin inflected over a See also:row of small flies. (After See also:Darwin.) B, glands from surface of leaf by which the sticky liquid is secreted and by means of which the products of digestion are absorbed. this way the plant obtains nitrogenous See also:food by means of its leaves. The leaves See also:bear two sets of glands, the larger See also:borne on usually unicellular pedicels, the smaller almost sessile (fig. B). When a See also:fly is captured, the viscid excretion becomes strongly See also:acid and the naturally incurved margins of the leaf See also:curve still further inwards, rendering contact between the insect and the leaf-surface more See also:complete. The plant is widely distributed iu the See also:north temperate See also:zone, extending into the See also:arctic zone.

End of Article: BUTTERWORT

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BUTTERFLY AND MOTH (the former from " butter " and ... 		[next]
BUTTERY (from O. Fr. boterie, Late Lat. botaria, a ...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries