(seq. 6)

St. Stephens, March 7th. 1812

Dear Sir,

Yours of Jany. 17 was only recd. I replied imme
diately & chiefly with the view of saving you the trou=
ble of procuring & sending on a copy of Walter. About
10 days after I transmitted per mail some notices of a
medical nature. March 5 recd. yours of Febr. 10th accom=
panied by a copy of Walter for which I am truly obli=
ged to you.

From the sin of theorizing "which doth so
so easily beset" young men in the pursuit of science
I hope I have been delivered of for some years. In the
Sarracenia however I think we percieve something
like the adaptation of means to a particular end.
In summer, place the full grown leaves of the Sarracenia
variolaris upright in convenient situations in a
house infested by flies. These insects seem to be imme=
=diately attracted, they settle on the leaf, directly approach
the faux & leaning over the brim sip with earnestness
something on the inside of the tube. In this position
you will observe the flies to be cautiously attached by one
or more feet to the outside of the leaf, but that after=
ward, as if allured by the pleasure of taste, they quit their
external hold & enter the tube. Now fix your attention
on a particular fly & you will percieve that as soon as
he has taken this position that his footing becomes ve
=ry unsafe, that he totters, & finally slips to the bottom.
Rarely does a fly in his descent take wing & escape, &
so eagerly do these creatures press into the tubes that I
have seen them nearly filled in a few hours.

The cause of the falling of the insect is
in the disposition of the pubescence of the internal surface
of the tubular leaves. This is composed of stiff seta immediately
under the appendix, near the faux these become soft pili or villi all
manifestly pointing to the bottom of the tube, & preventing the
ascent of insects as I have tested by experiment. It is
true, I have seen spiders ascend but it by the aid of a