Darwin and Insectivorous plants

Odd plants fascinated Darwin. In his spare time he took up the subject of carnivorous—or more properly, insectivorous, plants.

It was sixteen years from his first observations to publication of his book on Insectivorous Plants, and in his autobiography Darwin put a positive spin on the length of time it took him to publish. He wrote.

"The delay in this case, as with all my other books, has been a great advantage to me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work, almost as well as if it were that of another person. The fact that a plant should secrete, when properly excited, a fluid containing an acid and ferment, closely analogous to the digestive fluid of an animal, was certainly a remarkable discovery."

Photo credit: http://darwinsflowers.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/5-3-4_insectivorous_plants_drosera1.jpg