1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



243 



the most remarkable "happy family" of the 

 horticultural kingdom." 



Then we have been told on the very best 

 authority that "Portugal is nearly destitute of 

 timber, having only 4.40 of its acreage under 

 trees." Andnow comes Mr.W.B. Hemsley , and 

 he says of Portugal : 



" Woods of Pinus pinaster cover altogether an 

 area of nearly 40,000 acres, and P. Pinea be- 



tween 5000 and 6000 acres, and the timber is 

 more costly than Pine wood imported from the 

 north of Europe. Great and successful efforts 

 are being made to increase the area of 

 forests." 



If we have 45,000 acres of these two species 

 alone, we would not be surprised if the woody 

 area did not foot up handsomely when other 

 trees are taken in. 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



A MURDEROUS PLANT-DARLINCTONIA 

 CALIFORNICA. 



BY J. G. LEMMON, TO THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY 



OF SCIENCES. 



No plant indigenous to the Pacific coast is 

 more profoundly interesting than our Darling- 

 ionia Californica. The eye of the uncultured 

 tourist or listless stock-man, no less than the 

 studious naturalist, is at once fascinated when 

 first its secret haunt is invaded in the fastnesses 

 of the Sierra Nevada. A startling mass of 

 green, yellow and crimson snake-heads, high 

 raised in air and thrusting enormous, flaming, 

 forked, curling tongues in every direction; a 

 developed warning principle in the passive veg- 

 etable kingdom ; a table-turner upon an old 

 eternity-endured enemy; a coming plotter 

 against an alert foe ; an ingenious deluder of the 

 unwary; a cruel murderer of the alarmed; an 

 insatiate vengeance-taker; a bold, watchful, cold- 

 blooded, confederated assassin — the Darling- 

 tonia forms a frightful spectre of the shadowy 

 swamp, a horrid incubus of subsequent dreams ! 



" Abhorrpd shape ! That only grace of beauty takes, 

 And brilliant hues to compass evil." 



A CONSUMMATE VILLAIN. 



The paraphernalia which the Darlingtonia 

 employs for attracting its victims is that of the 

 saloon-keeper and the Cyprian : gaudy colors, 

 ravishing odors, delicious sweets and delightful 

 apartments. Its machinery for destroying them 

 is that of the highwayman and the arch-fiend, 

 deceitful traps, tripping obstacles for the feet, 

 smooth declined planes, pointed dagger-thrusts 

 from behind and silent wells of oblivious waters. 

 What of enchantment and bewilderment is not 

 furnished by the many-colored, revolute, honey- 

 coated mustache, inviting to the spacious. 



vaulted, sugar-lined, many-windowed hood of 

 the large, tall leaves. Each robust plant provides 

 extra by sending up a long, slender, shining 

 flag-staff and suspending a flaunting array of 

 green, gold and crimson bunting, loosely enfold- 

 ing nectaries of scented sweets, the curious 

 flower of the Darlingtonia. Surely no member 

 of the vegetable kingdom has so remarkable 

 and unmistakable a mission, none steps so far 

 out of its normal state to perform it, and none 

 executes its trust with more ingenuity and 

 success. 



MODUS OPERANDI. 



How the DaWmo"/oreza is constructed and the 

 mode and results of its warfare have been made 

 the subject of searching expeditions and elabor- 

 ate essays by Darwin, Hooker, Gi-ay, Canby, 

 and recently by a fellow-member of this acad- 

 emy, Harry Edwards. But I trust that an en- 

 thusiastic botanist, whose facilities for observa- 

 tion have been most fortunate, may be pardoned 

 for presenting a few facts, gained, not without 

 many different interviews of this notorious 

 rogue, at various seasons of the year. 



Living less than sixty miles from one of the 



few localities where the Darlingtonia is found 



in its best estate — Butterfly valley, near Quincy — 



I make yearly pilgrimages to its home, I camp 



by its battle ground, I conquer my repugnance 



to its hideous aspect and its cruel work, become 



I accustomed in time to the stench of its rotting 



I victims and I carefully study its wonderous 



I mechanism. I note its aspects, and appliances 



varying with the seasons. I feed it with otlier 



food — flesh, fish, fowl and farinaceous diet, 



' sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, oils, saleratus, 



acids, etc. I witness the welcome of agreeable 



diet, the sickening effects of poisons. I ply it 



with unusual captives — frogs, snakes, minnows, 



I tadpoles — and note the arrival of new forces or 



! the adaptation of combined powers to meet the 



