understand at all, Mabyn, what you talk of as love. I suppose you mean the sort of wild madness you read of in books well, I don't want that kind of love at all. There is quite a different sort of love, that comes of respect and affection and an agreement of wishes, and that is far more valuable and likely to be lasting, I don't want a lover who would do wild things, and make one wonder at his heroism, for that is the lover you get in books; but if you want to live a happy life, and please those around you, and be of service to them, you must have a very different sort of sweetheart -a man who will think of something else than a merely selfish passion, who will help you to be kind to other people, and whose affection will last through years and years."

"You have learnt your lesson very well," said Miss Mabyn, with a toss of her head. "He has spent some time in teaching you. But as for all that, Wenna, it's nothing but fudge. What a girl wants is to be really loved by a man, and then she can do without all those fine sentiments. As for Mr. Roscorla "

"I do not think we are likely to agree on this matter, dear," said Wenna, calm ly, as she rose; "and so we had better say nothing about it."

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Oh, I am not going to quarrel with you, Wenna," said the younger sister, promptly. "You and I will always agree very well. It is Mr. Roscorla and I who are not likely to agree very well not at all likely, I can assure you."

ural shyness and modesty which she con sidered was probably common to all girls in these strange circumstances.

Mr. Roscorla wished to convoy the two young ladies back to the inn, and evidently meant to spend the evening there. But Miss Wenna ill requited his gallantry by informing him that she had intended to make one or two calls in the evening, which would occupy some time: in particular, she had undertaken to do something for Mrs. Luke's eldest girl; and she had also promised to go in and read for half an hour to Nicholas Keam, the brother of the wife of the owner of the Napoleon Hotel, who was very ill indeed, and far too languid to read for himself.

"But you know, Mr. Roscorla," said Mabyn, with a bitter malice, "if you would go into the Napoleon and read to Mr. Keam, Wenna and I could go up to Mother Luke's, and so we should save all that time, and I am sure Wenna is very tired to-day. Then you would be so much better able to pick out the things in the papers that Mr. Keam wants; for Wenna never knows what is old and new, and Mr. Keam is anxious to know what is going on in politics, and the Irish Church, and that kind of thing."

Could he refuse? Surely a man who has just got a girl to say she will marry him, ought not to think twice about sacrificing half an hour to helping her in her occupations, especially if she be tired. Wenna could not have made the request herself; but she was anxious that he should say yes, now it had been made, for it was in a manner a test of his devotion to her; and she was overjoyed and most grateful to him when he consented. What Mabyn thought of the matter was not visible on her face.

CHAPTER VIII.

They were walking back to Eglosilyan, under the clear evening skies, when whom should they see coming out to meet them but Mr. Roscorla himself. It was a pleasant time and place for lovers to come together. The warm light left by the sunset still shone across the hills; the clear blue-green water in the tiny harbour lay perfectly still; Eglosilyan had WENNA'S FIRST TRIUMPH. got its day's work over, and was either chatting in the cottage gardens or stroll- THE two girls, as they went up the ing down to have a look at the couple of main street of Eglosilyan (it was sweet coasters moored behind the small but with the scent of flowers on this beautipowerful breakwater. But Mr. Roscorla ful evening), left Mr. Roscorla in front of had had no hope of discovering Wenna the obscure little public-house he had alone; he was quite as well content to undertaken to visit; and it is probable find Mabyn with her, though that young that in the whole of England at that molady, as he came up, looked particularly ment there was not a more miserable fierce, and did not smile at all when she man. He knew this Nicholas Keam, and shook hands with him. Was it the red his sister, and his brother-in-law, so far glow in the west that gave an extra tinge as their names went, and they knew him of colour to Mr. Roscorla's face? Wen- by sight; but he had never said more na felt that she was better satisfied with than good-morning to any one of them, her engagement when her lover was not and he had certainly never entered this present; but she put that down to a nat-pot-house, where a sort of debating so

ciety was nightly held by the habitués. But, all the same, he would do what he had undertaken to do, for Wenna Rosewarne's sake; and it was with some sensation of a despairing heroism that he went up the steps of slate and crossed the threshold.

—and with that she opened the door of a room on the other side of the passage. It was obviously the private parlour of the household an odd little chamber with plenty of coloured lithographs on the walls, and china and photographs on the mantel-piece; the floor of large He looked into the place from the pas- blocks of slate ornamented with various sage. He found before him what was devices in chalk; in the corner a cupreally a large kitchen, with a spacious board filled with old cut orystal, brass fireplace, and heavy rafters across the candlesticks, and other articles of luxury. roof; but all round the walls there was a The room had one occupant — a tall man sort of bench with a high wooden back to who sate in a big wooden chair by the it, and on this seat sate a number of men window, his head hanging forward be-one or two labourers, the rest slate-tween his high shoulders, and his thin workers who, in the dusk, were idly white hands on the arms of the chair. smoking and looking at the beer on the The sunken cheeks, the sallow-white narrow tables before them. Was this complexion, the listless air, and an octhe sort of place that his future wife had been in the habit of visiting? There was a sort of gloomy picturesqueness about the chamber, to be sure; for, warm as the evening was, a fire burned flickeringly in the grate; there was enough light to show the tin and copper vessels shining over the high mantel-piece; and a couple of fair-haired children were playing about the middle of the floor, little heeding the row of dusky figures around the tables, whose heads were halfhidden by tobacco-smoke.

casional sigh of resignation told a sufficiently plain story; although Mrs. Haigh, in regarding her brother, and speaking to him in a loud voice, as if to arouse his attention, wore an air of brisk cheerfulness strangely in contrast with the worn look of his face.

"Don't yü knaw Mr. Roscorla, Brother Nicholas ?" said his sister. "Don't yü look mazed, when he's come vor to zee if yü're better. And yü be much better today, Brother Nicholas?"

"Yes, I think," said the sick man, agreeing with his sister out of mere listless

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A tall, thin, fresh-coloured woman came along the passage; and Mr. Ros-ness. corla was glad that he had not to go in among these labourers to make his business known. It was bad enough to have to speak to Mrs. Haigh, the landlady of the Napoleon.

"Good morning, Mrs. Haigh," said he, with an appearance of cheerfulness.

"Good evenin', zor," said she, staring at him with those cruelly shrewd and clear eyes that the Cornish peasantry have.

"I called in to see Mr. Keam," said he. "Is he much better?"

A thousand wild suggestions flashed upon his mind. She might not recognize him. She would take him for a Scripture reader, come to hasten the poor man's death; or for the agent of some funeral company. He could not smile, as he was asking about a sick man; he could not sigh, for he had come to administer cheerfulness; and all the while, as Mrs. Haigh seemed to be regarding him, he grew more and more vexed and vowed that never again would he place himself in such a position.

"If yu'd like vor to see 'n, zor," said she, rather slowly, as if waiting for further explanation, "yü'll vind 'n in the rüm”!

Oh, yes, I think you look much better," said Mr. Roscorla, hastily and nervously, for he feared that both these people would see in his face what he thought of this unhappy man's chances of living. But Nicholas Keam mostly kept his eyes turned towards the floor, except when the brisk, loud voice of his sister roused him and caused him to look up.

A most awkward pause ensued. Mr. Roscorla felt convinced they would think he was mad if he offered to sit down in this parlour and read the newspapers to the invalid; he forgot that they did not know him as well as he did himself. On the other hand, would they not consider him a silly person if he admitted that he only made the offer in order to please a girl? Besides, he could see no newspapers in the room. Fortunately, at this moment, Mr. Keam himself came to the rescue by saying, in a slow and languid way

-

"I did expect vor to zee Miss Rosewarne this evenin' yaäs, I did; and she were to read me the news; but I suppose now—

Oh!" said Mr. Roscorla, quickly,

"I have just seen Miss Rosewarne -took his leave. When he went outside a she told me she expected to see you, but was a little tired. Now, if you like, I will read the newspapers to you as long as the light lasts."

Plants.

Various observers have described with more or less accuracy the habits of such vegetable sportsmen as the Sundew, the Venus's Fly-trap, and the Pitcher-plants, but few have inquired into their motives; and the views of those who have most accurately appreciated these have not met with that general acceptance which they deserved.

affairs of the day; and she dexterously | Council of the British Association has cut rolls of paper and dressed up her sis- done me the honour of placing me, the ter Mabyn to represent a lady of the time carnivorous habits of some of our brotherof Elizabeth, to the admiration of every- organisms body. Mr. Roscorla had inwardly to confess that he had secured for himself a most charming and delightful wife, who would make a wonderful difference in those dull evenings up at Bassett Cottage. He only half guessed the origin of Miss Wenna's great and obvious satisfaction. It was really this that she had that evening reaped the first welcome fruits of her new relations in finding Mr. Ros- Quite recently the subject has acquired corla ready to go and perform acts of a new interest, from the researches of charity. But for her engagement, that Mr. Darwin into the phenomena which would certainly not have happened; and accompany the placing albuminous subthis, she believed, was but the auspicious stances on the leaves of Drosera and beginning. Of course Mr. Roscorla Pinguicula, and which, in the opinion of would have laughed if she had informed a very eminent physiologist, prove, in him of her belief that the regeneration of the whole little world of Eglosilyansomething like the Millennium, indeed was to come about merely because an innkeeper's daughter was about to be made a married woman. Wenna Rosewarne, however, did not formulate any such belief; but she was none the less proud of the great results that had already been secured by by what? By her sacrifice of herself? She did not pursue the subject so far.

Her delight was infectious. Mr. Roscorla, as he walked home that night. under the throbbing starlight, with the sound of the Atlantic murmuring through the darkness was, on the whole, rather pleased that he had been vexed on hear ing of that letter from Harry Trelyon. He would continue to be vexed. He would endeavour to be jealous without measure; for how can jealousy exist if an anxious love is not also present? and, in fact, should not a man who is really fond of a woman be quick to resent the approach of any one who seems to interfere with his right of property in her affections? By the time he reached Bassett Cottage, Mr. Roscorla had very nearly persuaded himself into the belief that he was really in love with Wenna Rosewarne.

From Nature. THE CARNIVOROUS HABITS OF PLANTS.*

I HAVE chosen for the subject of my address to you from the chair in which the

the case of Dionæa, that this plant digests exactly the same substances and in exactly the same way that the human stomach does. With these researches Mr. Darwin is still actively engaged, and it has been with the view of rendering him such aid as my position and opportunities at Kew afforded me, that I have, under his instructions, examined some other carnivorous plants.

In the course of my inquiries I have been led to look into the early history of the whole subject, which I find to be so little known and so interesting that I have thought that a sketch of it, up to the date of Mr. Darwin's investigations, might prove acceptable to the members of this Association. In drawing it up, I have been obliged to limit myself to the most important plants; and with regard to such of these as Mr. Darwin has studied, I leave it to him to announce the discoveries which, with his usual frankness, he has communicated to me and to other friends; whilst with regard to those which I have myself studied, Sarracenia and Nepenthes, I shall briefly detail such of my observations and experiments as seem to be the most suggestive.

Dionæa.- About 1768 Ellis, a wellknown English naturalist, sent to Linnæus a drawing of a plant, to which he gave the poetical name of Dionæa. "In the year 1765," he writes, "our late worthy friend, Mr. Peter Collinson, sent me a dried specimen of this curious plant, which he had received from Mr. John Bartram, of Philadelphia, botanist

British Association, Belfast, August 21, by Dr. Hooker,

* Address in the Department of Zoology and Botany, C.B., D.C.L., Pres. R.S.

to the late King." Ellis flowered the irritated, just as the sensitive plant does; plant in his chambers, having obtained living specimens from America. I will read the account which he gave of it to Linnæus, and which moved the great naturalist to declare that, though he had seen and examined no small number of plants, he had never met with so wonderful a phenomenon :

and he consequently regarded the capture of the disturbing insect as something merely accidental and of no importance to the plant. He was, however, too sagacious to accept Ellis's sensational account of the coup de grace which the insects received from the three stiff hairs in the centre of each lobe of the leaf.

Linnæus's authority overbore criticism, if any were offered; and his statements about the behaviour of the leaves were faithfully copied from book to book.

Broussonet (in 1784) attempted to explain the contraction of the leaves by supposing that the captured insect pricked them, and so let out the fluid which previously kept them turgid and expanded.

Dr. Darwin (1761) was contented to suppose that the Dionaea surrounded itself with insect traps to prevent depredations upon its flowers.

"The plant," Ellis says, "shows that Nature may have some view towards its nourishment, in forming the upper joint of its leaf like a machine to catch food; upon the middle of this lies the bait for the unhappy insect that becomes its prey. Many minute red glands that cover its surface, and which perhaps discharge sweet liquor, tempt the animal to taste them; and the instant these tender parts are irritated by its feet, the two lobes rise up, grasp it fast, lock the rows of spines together, and squeeze it to death. And further, lest the strong efforts for Sixty years after Linnæus wrote, howlife in the creature just taken should ever, an able botanist, the Rev. Dr. Curtis serve to disengage it, three small erect (dead but a few years since), resided at spines are fixed near the middle of each Wilmington, in North Carolina, the headlobe, among the glands, that effectually quarters of this very local plant. In 1834 put an end to all its struggles. Nor do he published an account of it in the the lobes ever open again, while the dead Boston Journal of Natural History, animal continues there. But it is never-which is a model of accurate scientific theless certain that the plant cannot dis-observation. This is what he said: tinguish an animal from a vegetable or mineral substance; for if we introduce a straw or pin between the lobes, it will grasp it fully as fast as if it was an in

sect."

This account, which in its way is scarcely less horrible than the descriptions of those medieval statues which opened to embrace and stab their victims, is substantially correct, but erroneous in some particulars. I prefer to trace out our knowledge of the facts in historical order, because it is extremely important to realize in so doing how much our appreciation of tolerably simple matters may be influenced by the prepossessions that occupy our mind.

We have a striking illustration of this in the statement published by Linnæus a few years afterwards. All the facts which I have detailed to you were in his possession; yet he was evidently unable to bring himself to believe that Nature intended the plant to use Ellis's words to "receive some nourishment from the animals it seizes; and he accordingly declared, that as soon as the insects ceased to struggle, the leaf opened and let them go. He only saw in these wonderful actions an extreme case of sensitiveness in the leaves which caused them to fold up when

"Each half of the leaf is a little concave on the inner side, where are placed three delicate hair-like organs, in such an order that an insect can hardly traverse it without interfering with one of them, when the two sides suddenly collapse and enclose the prey, with a force surpassing an insect's efforts to escape. The fringe of hairs on the opposite sides of a leaf interlace, like the fingers of two hands clasped together. The sensitiveness resides only in these hairlike processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any other part without sensible effects. The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly destroyed, as is sometimes supposed, for I have often liberated captive flies and spiders, which sped away as fast as fear or joy could carry them. At other times, I have found them enveloped in a fluid of a mucilaginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects being more or less consumed in it."

To Ellis belongs the credit of divining the purpose of the capture of insects by the Dionaea. But Curtis made out the details of the mechanism, by ascertaining the seat of the sensitiveness in the leaves; and he also pointed out that the 'secretion was not a lure exuded before