SARRACENIA. 



912. Sarracenia. All of the eight species of this genus have 

 hollowed phyllodia, which form slender pitchers or urns. In the 

 best-known species, S. purpurea, 1 the 

 urn is generally so held that rain can 

 fall directly into it ; in fact, the upright 

 foliar expansion would seem to insure 

 that none be lost. In S. flava, Drum- 

 mondii, and rubra, the pitchers are 

 more nearly vertical, and the lid at the 

 mouth of the tube so disposed when 

 the leaf is young as to 



*/ o 



shed for the most part 

 rain that falls thereon ; 

 but in the older leaves 

 the lid becomes some- 

 what erect. Even in 

 the latter position a por- 

 tion of the rain that falls 

 upon the leaves is car- jfj 

 ried off. In the re- 

 maining species, S. variolaris and psittacina, the 



lid is a roof which keeps 

 the rain from entering the 

 tube. In all the cases there 

 is usually considerable water 

 in the pitchers ; in the last 

 two species it probably all 

 comes from within as a se- 

 cretion. 



913. Sarracenia variolaris 

 has been long known to at- 

 tract insects to the leaves. 

 Passing over the earlier no- 

 tices referred to in the Bib- 



159 IGO liography, page 351, the 



following quotation from 



MacBride, 2 written in 1815, will indicate sufficiently the char- 

 acter of the attraction : - 



158 



1 Scliimper : Botanihche Zeitung, 1882, p. 225. 



' 2 Transactions of the Liunsean Society, xii., 1818, p. 48. 



FIG. 158. Pitcher-leaves of Sarracenia purpurea ; one has the upper part cut away. 

 FIG. 159. Pitcher of Sarracenia variolaris. 

 FIG. IGO. Pitchei- of Sarraceuia psittaciua. 



