ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 161] 
presented ore from Lake County. Cornelius Cole presented 
fibrous Asbestos from Maryland and from Elko County, Nevada. 
Mr. Edwards spoke of his recent trip to Mt. Shasta, partic- 
ularly with reference to the California ‘‘ Pitcher Plant,” (Dar- 
lingtonia Californica) found in great abundance in that locality, 
as follows: 
Darlingtonia Californica. Torrey. 
BY HENRY EDWARDS. 
Some time since I promised to bring before the notice of the Academy the 
few facts I had observed with regard to the remarkable pitcher-plant (Darling- 
tonia Californica), and by adding to them as much information as I could 
collect with reference not only to this species, but also to those allied to it in 
habits and structure, it is my hope that more extended observations may yet 
be made by some of our members upon this very singular product of the 
vegetable kingdom. 
The Sarracceniacee, the family to which our Darlingtonia belongs, is one of 
the smallest known to botanists, containing only three genera and eight species. 
Its place in classification has been assigned between Nympheacee, the family 
of the water-lily, and Papaveracee, that containing the poppies. Its geo- 
graphical distribution is remarkable, the whole of the species of the family 
being confined to the American continent. Thus, the genus Sarracenia con- 
tains six species, all of them natives of the Atlantic States, and only one of 
them having at all an extensive range, viz.: Sarracenia purpurea, of Linneus, 
which is found from lat. 48 N. to Southern Florida, and westward as far as 
Ohio. The remaining species S. pittacina, Michx., S. rubra, Walt., 8. Drum- 
mondii, Croome, S. flava, Lin., and S. variolaris, Michx., are all confined to 
the Southern States; the last named species being probably the most abundant, 
the others being only met with in favored localities. According to Dr. Asa 
Gray, the genus was named by Tournefort in honor of Dr. Sarrazin of Quebec, 
who early in the present century forwarded a description of the best known 
species, viz., S. purpurea, to Kurope. Since the time of its discovery, plants 
have constantly been forwarded to England and to the Continent, and now 
very many of the greenhouses of the old world boast the possession of our 
pitcher flowers. Another genus, Heliamphora, of Bentham, contains but one 
species, H. nutans, Benth., a native of boggy places in British Guiana. It 
is remarkable in its family for the scape containing sometimes five or six 
nodding, blush-white, or rose-colored flowers; those of the other genera being 
solitary, and mostly dull yellow, or purplish in color. The remaining genus,- 
Darlingtonia, is a native of this State, and the only one of the group found 
west of the Rocky Mountains. It contains but one species, D. Californica, 
the subject of our present consideration. 
This remarkable plant was first described by the late Dr. Jno. Torrey from 
specimens forwarded to him by I. D. Brackenridge, Assistant Botanist to the 
