Francis E. Lloyd —18— Carnivorous Plants 



short distance E. of New Orleans, Mississippi, through S. Alabama, 

 S. Georgia to the coast and in N. Florida. 



S. purpurea venosa (Rafinesque) Wherry. Southern pitcher plant. 

 This species has an interrupted distribution from southern New Jersey 

 to S. Mississippi. Only small isolated colonies are to be found be- 

 tween N. Carolina, where it is widespread, and a similarly wide- 

 spread area in S. E. Georgia, extreme N. E. Florida, S. Alabama, 

 from which a narrow tongue extends to near the Mississippi River 

 N. of New Orleans. 



S. purpurea gibbosa (Rafinesque) Wherry. (i—SS)- Northern 

 pitcher plant. Found throughout a vast area, beginning with a nar- 

 row strip embracing the coastal regions of Maryland, Delaware and 

 New Jersey, it spread westerly through N. Pennsylvania, N. Ohio, 

 N. IlHnois, Wisconsin, through the whole region north and east to 

 the Atlantic coast, and N. W. through the region of Winnipeg into 

 uncharted regions. The northern limits are not known. 



Sarracenia purpurea Linn, has had a long history, and we are in- 

 debted to Hooker (1875) for digging out the facts. From_ an early 

 sketch by an unknown author, which found its way to Lisbon and 

 thence to Paris, Clusius (Rariorum pi. historia, 1601, p. boodj) 

 published a figure, which thirty years later was copied by Johnson 

 in his edition of Gerard's Herbal, in the hope that someone would 

 find the plant. The hope was reahzed when John Tradescant, 

 whose name is perpetuated in the genus Tradescantia, ^ found it in 

 Virginia and succeeded in bringing it ahve to England in 1640. In 

 1700 Tournefort described the plant, naming it Sarracenia (or Sar- 

 racena) in honor of Dr. M. S. Sarrazin, who had sent it to him from 

 Quebec. The name was adopted by Linnaeus in his Hortus Clif- 

 fortianus, 1737. The plant in question is then called Sarracenia 

 purpurea L., and is the best known of all the species chiefly by reason 

 of its above mentioned wide distribution. 



Quite naturally the structural features of these peculiar plants 

 were the first to attract attention. The terminal lobe or flap not 

 only looked like a Hd, but was believed by Morison (Plantarum 

 Historiae, 1699, 3:533) to be hinged and capable of movement, as 

 many non-botanists believe today. Linnaeus and others adopted 

 this idea, thinking this behaviour to conserve the water within. Bur- 

 nett (1829) seemed very sure of this. "In many instances the ap- 

 paratus is fitted with a lip or Hd, by which the mouth may be shut or 

 opened; the machinery of which limb is so contrived that, when the 

 cavity within is well supphed, it closes to prevent evaporation; and 

 when the stock is diminished or consumed, the lip is raised, so that the 

 mouth is again raised to receive the falhng rain or rising dew." 

 Catesby (Nat. Hist, of CaroHna 2:69, 1743) had the idea that the 

 hollow leaves were a refuge for insects from the animals (frogs, etc.) 

 which might devour them. William, son of Charles Bartram, in 

 his Travels in N. and S. Carolina, Georgia and Florida (1791) re- 

 corded the objection suggested earlier by Collinson (see Smith, 

 182 1) that many insects, on the contrary, are caught and destroyed 

 in the pitchers. 



Later more meticulous observations on S. adunca led Macbride 



