Venus Flytrap

The carnivorous plant that fascinated the Enlightenment. Dionaea muscipula, plate 785 of the Botanical Magazine (vol.19, 1804), drawn and engraved by Sydenham Edwards. Open and shut traps, trigger hairs: proof that a plant can hunt, more than seventy years before Darwin devoted an entire book to carnivorous plants (Insectivorous Plants, 1875).

Plate from the virtual exhibition Wondrous Flora (Trace Museum, 1705-1887).