Interest in insectivorous plants swept through both England and America in the 1870s and 1880s, judging by the number of articles published in popular periodicals. Both male and female authors, especially the American naturalist and popular science writer Mary Treat, fell under the spell of these "murderous plants" and spent considerable energy researching and writing about their hidden lives. This lecture examined the ways in which insectivorous plants made their way into the popular culture and how Charles Darwin and Mary Treat used their garden laboratories to understand the science of their digestive mechanisms.
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