110 Olservations toncerning 



is, to an irritable power residing in the flowers. But this 

 point remains to be determined by better observations. I 

 jhave never yet had an opportunity ot" examining the Befaria 

 in a living state. 



I might here give a long list of vegetables, such as dif- 

 ferent species of Rlwdodendron, Kalmia, Rolinia, Silene, 

 Lytlinim, which by virtue of the viscosity upon different 

 parts of their flowers, &c. entangle and destroy small in- 

 sects. But my business in this imperfect essay is not with 

 Muscicapce of this kind. Yet a more critical inquiry into 

 the use of this viscous matter, in the vegetable ceconomy, 

 by which millions of insects are destroyed in our gardens, 

 green-houses, woods, &c. might deserve the attention of 

 physiologists. 



in regard to the Sarracejiice,'as I design to make their his- 

 tory, botanical, physiological and medical, the subject of a 

 distinct memoir, I shall content myself at present by ofler- 

 ing a few detached facts and observations concerning these 

 plants. 



It is well known that all the species of this singular 

 genus (and I think at least seven species have been dis- 

 covered in North America) are inhabitants of the water, or 

 of wet situations. All the species are furnished with tu- 

 bular or hollow leaves (ascidia), which in the more adult 

 plants are seldom found without a considerable number of 

 insects dead or living in them. I do not mean, however, 

 to insinuate that these insects owe their presence in the 

 Sarracenice to any thing like an irritable property residing 

 in any part of the plants. Indeed, I have not discovered 

 any vestige of peculiar irritability in the constitution of the 

 Sarracenice. But I think it sufficiently evident that nature 

 has taken some pains (if it be ever allowable to use such 

 language in speaking of the works and operations of Na- 

 ture) to solicit insects into the ascidia of the species of this 

 genus. 



Thus, the flowers of the Sarraceniajlava" (the yellow 

 Trumpet-leaf or Side-saddle-flower of the people of the 

 United States) have a most offensive, cadaverous or carrion- 

 like odour. This odour, to speak more properly, seems to 

 reside principally, if not entirely, in the broad peltated stigma 

 of the plant. I think it probable that it is, in part at leastf 

 this odour, which is so potent and diffusible that it is 

 sometimes perceived at a considerable distance from the 

 plant, in a warm and rather confined atmosphere; that it is 

 partlv this odour, which serves to solicit various kinds of 

 insects about the plant, many of which before they can 



reach 



