Ranai.es.] 



SARRACENIACE/E. 



429 



Order CLV. SARRACENIACEiE.— Sarraceniads. 



Sarracenieae, Turpin in Did. des Sc. c. ic. (?) ; JDe la Pi/laie in Ann. Linn. Par. G. 388. t. 13. (1827) ■ 

 Hooker Fl. Boreal. Am. p. 33. (1829) ; Endl. Gen. p. 901 ; Meisner, p. 334. 



Diagnosis. — Ranal Exogens, with consolidated carpels, a permanent cahjx, and axile 



Herbaceous perennial plants, living in bogs. Roots fibrous. Leaves radical, with a 

 hollow urn-shaped petiole, at whose apex is articulated the lamina, wliich fits on like a 

 hd. Scapes each having 1 or more large 

 flowers, of a more or less herbaceous colour, 

 or white. Calyx 4- G-leaved, broken-whorled, 

 much imbricated, \\-ithout a corolla ; or con- 

 sisting of 5 persistent sepals, often having a 

 3-leaved involucre on the outside, and 5 hypo- 

 gynous, unguiculate, concave petals. Stamens 

 00, hypog}Tious ; anthers oblong, adnate, 2- 

 celled, bursting internally and longitudinally. 

 Ovary free, 3- 5-celled, with polyspermous 

 placentae in the axis ; style simple, tinincate, 

 or expanded into a large peltate plate with 5 

 stigmatic angles ; o\Tiles auatropal. Capsule 

 with 2- 5 cells. Seeds very numerous, minute, 

 sUghtly warted or winged, covering large 

 placentae, wliich project from the axis into 

 the cavity of the cells ; albumen abundant ; 

 embryo cylindrical, lying near the base of the 

 seed, with the radicle tiu'ned to the hilum. 



The genus Sarracenia, inhabiting the bogs 

 of North America, bears the strange name of 

 Side-saddle Flower, in allusion to the sin- 

 gular tubular leaves of itself and its ally. 

 So long as the former alone was known, 

 no clear idea could be formed of its affinity, 

 and a large peltate plate which terminates ^^ 

 the style and leaves a stigma beneath each of ^^^l 

 its 5 angles, was thought to be essential to the ' "'' 

 Order which it represents ; but the discovery 

 in Guiana, by Sir R. Schomburgk, of a very 

 curious genus in which the stigma is reduced 

 to a truncated point, shows that opinion to 

 be unfounded. The same fact also proves 

 that the floral envelopes are subject to great 

 diversity of condition, consisting, in Sarra- 

 cenia itself, of 5 sepals and 5 distinct petals, 



but reduced in HeUamphora to 4, 5, or perhaps 6, imbricated segments, standing in the 

 place of both calyx and corolla. This deviation from what may be termed the typical 

 stinicture of the Order is quite analogous to what occurs among Crowfoots, where Ra- 

 mmculusmay be compared to Sarracenia and Caltha to Heliamphora. This leads to the 

 supposition that it is in the neighbourhood of the Ranal Alliance that Sarraceniads are 

 to be placed ; and in fact Poppyworts, which are Ranals with completely consohdated 

 cai*pels, must be taken as the nearest connection of these singular plants. 



The pitchers appear to be secreting organs, for they are lined by hairs of a very sin- 

 gular nature, as is mentioned in Mr. Bentham's Memoir on Heliamphora, m Linn. Trans. 

 xviii. p. 429 ; but their physiological action remains to be ascertained. 



The species are confined to the bogs of North America, with the exception of Heli- 

 amphora nutans, found in Guayana. 



Their uses are unknowTi. 



GENERA. 

 Sarracenia, Lmn. \ Coilophyllum, Moris. | Bncanaphyllum, Pluk. | Heliamphora, Benth. 



CCXCIX. 



Numbers. Gen. 2. Sp. 7. 

 Droseracece. 

 Position. — Papaveracese. — Sarraceniace^.- 



-Ranunculacese. 



Fig. CCXCIX.— Heliamphora nutans. 1. the stamens and pistil j 2. the latter separate j 3. a cross 

 section of the ovarj' ; 4. a perpendicular section of a seed. 



