Neal a eaten ——————a 
DARLINGTONIA CALIFORNICA, Sax XI 
Has.—Head waters of the Sacramento ; Northern Cagvaiin’ near § 
Peak ; growing in marshes, and flowering in May. Mr. J. D. Brackenri 
Dr. G. W. Hulse. : 
A perennial herb. Root-stock short and thick, producing numeroulntan 
brown, fibrous roots. Leaves all radical; the adult ones from eighteen inche 
two feet or more in length; the petiole or pitcher tubular, gradually tapering dow 
ward, and singularly twisted on its axis about half a turn, marked with strong 
parallel and longitudinal veins which are connected by very slender veinlets. The 
summit is vaulted, and formed into a sac about the size of a hen’s egg, on the 
under side of which is an oval orifice, about half an inch in diameter, opening 
into the cavity of the pitcher. The areola of the sac, and also of the back of the 
tube, on the upper part, are discolored (of a dull orange color in the dried speci- 
mens), as in Sarracenia variolaris and S. Drummondii. Along the inside of the 
petiole is a narrow wing, which is single, except at the base, where it separates. 
into two plates that clasp the scape and the base of the superior leaves. ‘The lamina 
is narrow at the base, and deeply divided into two somewhat unequal widely- —_—- 
spreading lobes, which are oblong-lanceolate, rather acute, bent downwards and 
often also backwards ; the inner (or properly upper) surface very minutely pubes- 
cent. The pitcher inside the hood is retrorsely hirsute with short conical hairs ; 
from thence downward it is glabrous; but towards the base it is lined with long 
slender hairs, also pointing downwards: at the bottom remains of insects were 
found. Neither these hairs, nor those of the lamina, appeared to be of a secreting 
character.* The scape is from one to four feet long, flexuous, angular, glabrous, 
and furnished with sessile clasping straw-colored scales. These scales : = 
ceous and alternate ; the lower ones distant and lanceolate, the upper | 
more approximated and broader, while those near the flower are 0 
imbricate. They are marked with longitudinal veins, which are forked above. 
‘The upper strfaed.3 is paler than the lower, and under a lens shows minute cor ical 
papille. The flower, when fully expanded, is nearly two inches in diameter. — The 
calyx consists of five oblong, rather acute sepals, which are of pale straw-color, and 
are quincuncially imbricated. There are no calyculate bractlets at their base. The 
corolla is five-petalled, about the length of the calyx, and its estivation is likewise 
quincuncial. The petals are: oblong, pale purple, marked with deeper | eticulated 
veins, and are apparently not conniyent over the pistil. They are furnished with 
a small ovate, concave lamina, and a very broad, obovate claw, which is. two or 
ahrae times larger than ihe lamina. Stamens ici twelve to Sinema hypog 
rain 1 water or ae and yet Mr. Bracketnidgs thinks he found some of the leaves P setndiat ng wal 
Still I cannot think the water was secreted by the hairs in the tube. In Sarracenia psittacina the orifi 
is likewise concealed and protected by the hood, so that the leaf can hardly be said to have any la 
the arched summit belonging to the petiole, as in Deine 
