112 JouKXAL OF THE MiTCHELL SociETY [^September 



others there is only one flower to a plant. In Sarracenia, the largest 

 genus, the flowers are borne on erect naked stalks (scapes), from 

 less than a foot to over two feet tall. At blooming time, which ranges 

 from March in Florida to August in Labrador, the top of the scape is 

 bent over so that the flower hangs dowmward. After the petals and 

 stamens fall the axis of the flower assumes a more or less horizontal 

 position, and the sepals and pistil together with the great umbrella- 

 like stigma turn green and remain without further change until late 

 in the fall, when the seeds are ripe. Just how the seeds are trans- 

 ported from place to place is not known, but very likely become at- 

 tached to the feet of migrating birds in some w^ay, for some of the 

 species have a wide and rather sporadic distribution. 



One of the genera, Heliampliora, with a single species, is known 

 only from Mt. Roraima in British Guiana, where it was discovered 

 about 1838 by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, a noted explorer, who sur- 

 veyed the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela, and also 

 discovered the Victoria regia, the giant of the water-lily family. It 

 grows in rather inaccessible places, but has been seen by a few sub- 

 sequent explorers. 



Another genus, Darlingtonia (more recently called Chrysamphora 

 on account of a conflict in nomenclature), likewise with a single 

 species, is confined to the mountains of Oregon and California. The 

 remaining genus, Sarracenia^ is confined to the southeastern United 

 States between latitudes 28° and 36°, except that one species extends 

 a little way into Virginia and another far into Canada, almost to the 

 Arctic Circle. Like many other bog plants, they are most abundant in 

 regions where most of the precipitation comes in the warmer half of 

 the year and thus counterbalances the evaporation to a considerable 

 extent. The flowers of the seven species of this genus are all much 

 alike except in color (some being red and some yellow) and size, but 

 the leaves are very diverse. Some of the species regularly, some occa- 

 sionally^, some never, produce in addition to the normal insect-catching 

 leaves sword-like ones consisting of wing only, without tube or hood, 

 or in some species there are all gradations between normal and tube- 

 less leaves (phyllodia). The phyllodia are chiefly produced in cool 



