32 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



Here, half buried in the moss, I found hundreds of 

 crimson-veined Pitcher Plants, or Side-Saddle Flowers 

 {Sarracenia purpurea) , which bear olive-green, purple- 

 veined, vase-like leaves that hold rain and dew. Often 

 the species varies in color, and its absolute greenish- 

 yellow with lighter green veinings. Many of the 

 larger pitchers hold fully a tumbler of fluid. Their 

 brilliant-hued brims are edged with crimson ridges, 

 delicately coated wath honey, thus enticing flies and 

 moths to drink from the nectar beyond the brim. The 

 more common prisoners are small flies and moths, but 

 one day I found two dozen snails captive in the larger 

 leaves of an ancient plant, for if once within, there is 

 no escape even for snails. Consequently the Pitcher 

 Plants — locally called St. Jacob's Dippers and Dumb 

 Watches by the children — are considered carnivorous 

 plants, since they are flesh-eating by nature. This is 

 also true of the small Round-leaved Sundew {Drosera 

 rotundifolid). 



These plants are traps that not only cunningly entice, 

 but actually entrap and slowly devour their victims. 

 Sundew delights in being fed beefsteak, and Professor 

 Bailey cites Darwin's experiment of feeding them 

 steak, w^hich " they accepted as readily as an insect." ' 

 The Sundew is plentiful in these mossy bogs. It has 

 red and white, dewy, bristUng, round leaves, with 

 long petioles spreading in a tuft. When a small fly or 

 ant touches these sticky bristles or tentacles on the 

 upper face of the leaf, the points of the outer row 

 • L. H. Bailey, Jr., Talks Afield, p. 128. 1885. 



