INSECTIVOROUS AND CLIMBING PLANTS 329 



are able to escape ; and tlieir decomposing remains ac- 

 cumulate in the narrow bottom of the vessel. Two 

 other long-tubed species of the Southern States are 

 similar in these respects. There is another, S. psit- 

 tacina, the parrot-headed species, remarkable for the 

 cowl-shaped hood so completely inflexed over the 

 mouth of the small pitcher that no rain can possibly 

 enter. Little is known, however, of the efficiency of 

 this species as a fly-catcher ; but its conformation has 

 a morphological interest, leading up, as it does, to the 

 Californian type of pitcher presently to be mentioned. 

 Eut the remaining species, S. variolaris^ is the most 

 wonderful of our pitcher-plants in its adaptations for 

 the capture of insects. The inflated and mottled lid 

 or hood overarches the ample orifice of the tubular 

 pitcher sufficiently to ward off the rain, but not to 

 obstruct the free access of flying insects. Flies, ants, 

 and most insects, glide and fall from the treacherous 

 smooth throat into the deep well below, and never 

 escape. They are allured by a sweet secretion just 

 within the oriflce — which was discovered and described 

 long ago, and the knowledge of it wellnigh forgotten 

 until recently. And, finally. Dr. Mellichamp, of South 

 Carolina, two years ago made the capital discovery that, 

 during the height of the season, this lure extends from 

 the orifice down nearly to the ground, a length of a 

 foot or two, in the forai of a honeyed line or narrow 

 trail on the edge of the wing-like border which is con- 

 spicuous in all these species, although only in this one, 

 so far as known, turned to such account. Here, one 

 would say, is a special adaptation to ants and such ter- 

 restrial and creeping insects. "Well, long before this 



