Chapter II — 19 — Sarracenia 



(1817) to find that the tube of the pitcher leaf is lined with down- 

 wardly pointed hairs, which he could "plainly see at the bottom of 

 the tube," and he saw also that there is about the mouth of the tube 

 a viscid substance which attracts flies. 



Then Mellichamp, a physician like Macbride, resident of the 

 same region and a contemporary of Hooker, did the first real ex- 

 perimentation on this plant and compared the rate at which fresh veni- 

 son showed disintegration in the pitcher fluid and in distilled water, 

 concluding that bacterial action was at work. He found also that 

 the pitcher fluid did not allow the escape of flies when they fell into 

 it as water does, indicating that there is an "anaesthetic action." 

 There is also, he saw, a nectar baited pathway up the outside of the 

 pitcher to its mouth. Thus Mellichamp's work opened up the field 

 of physiological research to which reference will be made later. 



Since then there have been numerous descriptions of the structure 

 of the various plants of the genus, not always of unimpeachable ac- 

 curacy. We now consider this aspect of the matter in what follows. 



Sarracenia purpurea is the most widely distributed, and longest 

 and best known, species, ranging from Labrador to Florida along the 

 Atlantic seacoast of N. America, and westward to Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota, successfully withstanding the rigors of the northern win- 

 ters. It has been successfully introduced in Switzerland. With S. 

 psiUacina Michx. it is associated in the section Decumbentes Uphof, 

 both being characterized by having their leaves more or less spread- 

 ing as a rosette. It is to be found in bogs, usually in company with 

 much Sphagnum, anchored therein by its strong ascending rhizomes 

 clothed with the remnants of dead leaf bases and sending out thick 

 fibrous roots. It may often be found in company with other plants, 

 making large floating or semi-floating masses of vegetation about the 

 edges of ponds, as described by Macfarlane and Steckbeck for 

 Davenport Lake, near Toms River, N. J., U. S. A. (1933). In com- 

 mon with carnivorous plants in general the roots are devoid of mycor- 

 rhiza (MacDougal 1899). 



It is a beautiful plant (/ — 3). Its leaves, which have a very grace- 

 ful form, are clustered into a rosette and are deep green with rich 

 crimson markings along the venation of the "flap" and more or less 

 uniform similar coloration in the upper portion of the body of the 

 leaf, depending on the exposure to fight. 



Form and structure of the leaf. — The pitcher leaf of Sarracenia 

 has many times been the subject of description from the anatomical 

 point of view by Vogl (1864), Macbride (181 7), Mellichamp (1875), 

 Hooker (1875), Zipperer (1885), Goebel (1891), Macfarlane 

 (1889, 1893). 



Aside from the cotyledons, which present no especially peculiar 

 features, there are two forms of the pitcher leaf, a juvenile and a ma- 

 ture, both mentioned by Troll (1932). The mature form may be 

 likened to an elegant cornucopia curving however only in one plane. 

 Arising from a winged base, the wings embracing the bearing stem, it 

 becomes cylindrical for a shorter or longer distance according to cir- 

 cumstances. The lower part of this is soHd; in its upper part may 

 be found the deepest portion of the hollow interior of the pitcher. 



