sundew

[For reason of name, see extract. Prior and Britten & Holland derive it from A. S. and Fris.sin ever, and Eng. dew.] Botany : 1. The genus Drosera (q. v.), of which about 100 species are known; often applied spec if. to D. rotund i folia , the Common Sun-dew, a very remark able insectivorous plant. Darwin's experiments seem to show that the insects captured and absorbed by the species supply them with the nitrogenous mat ter that the soil in which they grow is too poor to furnish. He thus summa rizes ( Insect. Plants, p.18) the manner in which these plants are nourished: "A plant of Drosera, with the edges of its leaves curled inward, so as to form a temporary stomach, with the glands of the closely inflected tentacles pouring forth their acid secretion, which di olves animal matter afterward to be absorbed, may be said to Leaf of Sun-Dew. often taken in the summer months round the coasts of northern Europe, and is usually captured when floating on the surface, as if basking in the sun. When laid hold of they are said to utter sounds like the grunting of a hog. The stomach has been known to contain corallines, barnacles, and sea-weed, though usually nothing but mucus is found in it. Couch mentions that the flesh is good eating, and resembles crab in flavor, but it is never sent to market. The largest specimen on record measured about eight feet long, and rather more in depth Sun-fish. from the dorsal to the ventral fins. The Oblong Sunfish, called also Oblong Tetrad on and Truncated Sun-fish, has the height of body le than one-half its total length. A specimen taken at Plymouth, England, in 1734, weighed 500 lbs., but it is not often met with of so large a size. It feods on worms, crabs, and other marine animals, and does not float on the surface like the Common Sun-fish. "The name sun- fish is variously regarded as derived from the form of the fish, and from its habit of floating at the surface of the water, in fine weather, as if to enjoy the sunshine." -Chambers ' Encyc ., ix. 218. IMG:content-0574.png:[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small] 1. The sun considered as one of the great deities, as representative of the greatest deity, or as the greatest deity. 2. An embodiment, in whole or in part, of solar characteristics regarded as as a deity; e. g ., the A yrian Bel, the Tyrian Baal, the Persian Mithras, the Egyptian Ra, and the Greek Phœbus. "The modern who shall undertake discrim right side inflected over a bit of meat placed on the disc. differently from an animal, it drinks by means of its roots; and it must drink largely, so as to retain many drops of viscid fluid round the glands, sometimes as many as 260, exposed during the whole day to a glaring sun.' "The tentacles on one side are inflected over a bit of meat placed on the disc, the glands are each surrounded by large drops of extremely viscid secretion, which, glittering in the sun, have given rise to the plant's poetical name of sun-dew." Darwin: Insectivorous Plants , p. 4. 2. ( Pl.): The Droseraceæ (q. v.). ( Lindley.) sun-dial, s. [DIAL.] IMG:content-0575.png:[blocks in formation] the solar and non-solar elements of the Greek Apollo and Herakles, or the Sclavonic Perun and Swatowit, has a task before him complicate with that all but hopele difficulty which besets the study of myth the moment that the clue of direct comparison with nature falls away." Tylor : Prim . Cult . (ed. 1873), ii. 294.