Tas. 5920. 
DARLINGTONIA Catirornica. 
Native of California. 
Nat. Ord. SARRACENIACE. 
Genus Dartinetonta, Torr. ; (Benth. and Hook. f., Gen. Pl., vol. i. p. 148). 
Daruinetonta Californica. 
Daruinetonta Californica, Torvey in Smithsonian Contributions, vol. vi. p. 4, 
t.12; Walp. Ann., vol. iv. p.169; Flore des Serres, vol. xiv. tt. 1440, 
1441; Belgique Horticole, vol. v. t. 18. 
The following information regarding this most singular 
plant, which has been flowered by Messrs. Veitch in April of 
the present year, is compiled from a letter addressed to us by 
Mr. W. Robinson (who visited its native country in October, 
1870), and to whom the Royal Gardens are indebted for fine 
specimens. It is published in the “ Gardener’s Chronicle” 
for January 14th, 1871. 
The Darlingtonia grows in spongy sphagnum bogs, with 
Rushes.and Sundew, on the Sierra Nevada of California, 
at five thousand feet above the sea, where the pitchers 
resemble a cluster of Jargonelle pears, ten to twenty-four 
inches high, surrounding flowering stems of three to three and 
a half feet high, which at the fruiting season bore capsules 
as large as walnuts. The top of the pitcher is turned over, 
forming a dome, which together with the whole upper part 
of the leaf, is of a ripe-pear yellow colour. All the pitchers 
are spirally twisted, especially above, and contain at the 
bottom two to three inches depth of closely-packed insects, 
of all sizes, from little beetles to large moths. By what 
means the pitcher attracts these insects is not clear; but it 
1s easy to see how it disposes of them when enticed inside. Its 
imner surface is smooth for a short way down, when isolated 
hairs appear; and, lower down, the whole chamber is lined 
with sharp slender transparent rigid needle-like _ hairs, 
directed downwards at an acute angle. Towards the base of 
AUGUST Ist, 1871. 
