Chapter II 

 SARRACENIA 



Discovery. — Known species. — Descriptions of: 5. purpurea. — S. psiUacina. — S. 

 Courtii. — S. minor. — S. Drumtnondii. — S. flava. — S. Jonesii. — Morphology of the leaf. 

 — Digestion and absorption. — Animal life of the pitchers. 



The genus Sarracenia is based on Tournefort's original description 

 (1700) of a plant sent to him by Dr. M. S. Sarrazin from Quebec, 

 Canada. The name was adopted by Linnaeus (1737). The earliest 

 known illustration of Sarracenia is to be found in de l'Obel's Nova 

 Stirpium Adversaria, evidently of a leaf of 5. minor, probably re- 

 ceived from some Spanish explorer in Florida (p. 430, 1576 ed.). Ac- 

 cording to Uphof (Engler and Prantl, 2 ed.) there are nine species. 

 Wherry (1933) distinguishes between the northern form of S. pur- 

 purea and a southern form, namely, the subspecies S. purpurea gih- 

 bosa and 5. purpurea venosa, respectively. All species are distinguished 

 by the possession of pitcher leaves either upright or decumbent, of con- 

 siderable variety of form, to be detailed later. The following is a 

 list of the species and their geographic distribution, according to 

 Wherry (1935). 



Species with upright tubular pitcher leaves: — 



S. oreophila (Kearney) Wherry. Green pitcher plant. Of very 

 hmited distribution: Taylor Co., Georgia, and in the Appalachian 

 Mountains of Alabama (Cherokee, DeKald, and Marshall Cos.). 



S. Sledgei Macfarlane. Pale pitcher plant. S. Alabama, Missis- 

 sippi, Louisiana and E. Texas. One or two colonies are reported 

 to survive in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, presumably in 

 its ancestral home before the rise of the peneplain of the Cretaceous. 



S. flava L. Yellow pitcher plant (1 — 7). N. and S. Carolina, 

 Georgia, extreme N. Florida and S. Alabama, in the coastal plain. 



S. Jonesii Wherry. Red pitcher plant. There is a singular and 

 striking survival of this plant in an isolated spot in Buncombe and 

 Henderson Cos., N. Carolina. Otherwise it is found chiefly in S. 

 Alabama and in restricted regions nearby in Florida and Mississippi. 



S. Drummondii Croom. (7 — 6). White-top pitcher plant. Chiefly 

 S. Alabama, with slight extensions into Mississippi, Georgia, and N. 

 Florida. It forms two isolated colonies in Georgia (Sumter Co.) and 

 in Florida (Madison Co.). 



S. rubra Walter. Sweet pitcher plant. North Carolina (from 

 Moore Co. southward) through S. Carohna into Georgia, away from 

 the coast except in N. Carolina. 



S.minorW&W. {1 — 9). Hooded pitcher plant. " Fly-traps " (Mel- 

 LiCHAMp). Eastern half of the peninsula of Florida, in the north of 

 that state, southern Georgia, western S. CaroUna and slightly into 

 N. Carolina. 



Species with decumbent leaves: — • 



5. psittacina Michaux (/ — 8). Parrot pitcher plant. From a 



