158 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
specimens of all were secured, and illustrate well the parental and hybrid 
peculiarities. 
What seems to be the same cross was also observed by R. M. Harper,* 
near Americus, Ga. As S. rubra and S. Drwmmondi were the two 
parents common around, it is possible that these gave rise to the hybrid 
progeny. An examination of the flowers, or microscopic study of the 
leaves, would alone determine this point with accuracy. Sheets of it 
were distributed by Harper under the name S. Catesbei. He had some 
reason for such an identification, in view of the short and unsatisfactory 
diagnosis given originally by Elliott. But this shows that every new 
species cannot be too minutely described, and if possible illustrated. 
Historically it is worth noting that the above natural hybrid is identical 
with Sarracenia Moorei, raised by the late Dr. Moore and first exhibited 
by him at the Florence International Congress of 1874. 
The above evidence clearly demonstrates that S. purpurea, S. flava, 
S. minor, S. psittacina, and S. Drummondi all hybridise more or less 
perfectly in the wild state, and even that second hybrids are not extremely 
rare. All of the hybrids seem to originate where masses of two parents 
are growing together, or in close proximity. Since the flowers are wholly 
adapted for insect attraction and pollination, and since the pollen is so 
discharged from the anthers that it gets wetted and glued together, the 
transfer of the pollen by insects is effected in a neat and efficient manner. 
Wherever opportunities occur for such transfer, natural hybrids evidently 
appear at times. The only two species of which we have as yet no exact 
hybridisation records are S. rubra and S. Sledgei (former S. Catesba@i of 
Small and the writer). As regards S. rubra, it seldom grows near the 
other species in conspicuous masses, but rather in scattered clumps, and 
in shady situations, where chances for insect visits are rarer than in the 
open. In favourable localities, however, we believe that it will yet be 
found to hybridise. 
So far as accurate records show, S. Sledgei seems to be confined to 
the Gulf region between the Alabama River and Eastern Texas, over 
which area it may be at times extremely abundant. Here it is only 
associated with S. psittacina and S. purpurea, both of which flower from 
one to two weeks later than it. In spite of this there is every likelihood 
that hybrids will in time be reported, for the flowers of all the species last 
from fourteen to twenty-one days, and even at the close of that period 
the ovarian nectary may be secreting an attractive juice, after the petals 
have fallen. 
Through the kindness of the Director of Kew Gardens some specimens 
of hybrid Sarracenias with similar parentage to the above were exhibited 
at the Conference. These were raised in the Botanic Garden of the 
University of Pennsylvania, and they demonstrate the close similarity of 
the artificial products to those gathered in the wild state. Itis superfluous, 
in an article like the present, to treat of the microscopic details shown by 
the tissues of these plants. Suffice it to say that they confirm the con- 
clusions already reached by the writer, that hybrids blend to a marvellously 
minute degree the details of both parents, while tending at times to sway 
toward one parent or the other. 
* Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, vol. xxx. (1903), p. 334. 
