DARLINGTONIA 



DASYLIR10N 



457 



pitcher plants. There is only one species in this genus. 

 The plant was first collected near Mt. Shasta by the 

 Wilkes Exploring Expedition. Indians attacked the 

 party, and as the explorers retreated to their ramp W. 1). 

 Brackenridge grabbed something, which turned out to 

 be fragments of this exciting plant. The Darlingtonia 

 grows at an altitude of 5,000 feet on the Sierra Nevadas 

 of California, in sphagnum bogs along with sundews 

 and rushes. The pitchers grow in clusters, and are a 

 foot or two high. The pitcher is slender, erect, spirally 

 twisted and rounded at the top, something like a fiddle 

 head. Prom this hangs a curious reddish structure 

 with two long flaps. Underneath the rounded top is 

 seen the entrance to the trap, which means death to all 

 sorts of insects, big and little. How the plant attracts 

 them is not obvious, but the fate of the insects is clear. 

 They climb down a long, narrow funnel, guided by nee- 

 dle-like downward-pointing hairs. Arrived at the bot- 

 tom, the insects find these needles numerous and con- 

 verging. As they attempt to escape they are confronted 

 by an impassable array of lances. The manner of their 

 death can be easily imagined. They sink into the bot- 

 tom in a putrid, sticky mass, and the products of de- 

 composition are presumably absorbed by the plant. 



Darlingtonias have been grown outdoors in the east 

 the year round in a few special localities. Edward Gil- 

 lett, at South wick, Mass., grows them in a favored spot 

 without artificial protection. F. H. Horsford can pre- 

 serve them at Charlotte, Vt., with the aid of a winter 

 mulch. 



Calif6rnica, Torr. Fig. 678. Rootstock horizontal: Ivs. 

 forming pitchers as described above, which are curi- 

 ously veined, and have a wing on the ventral surface 

 and a crest on top, green, finally becoming a pear yel- 

 low: scape erect, %-l % ft. high, clothed with obtuse, 

 erect, concave, half -clasping bracts: fls. solitary, nod- 

 ding, 3 in. across; sepals 5, pale green; petals shorter 

 than the sepals, about 1 in. long, converging, greenish 

 yellow, with broad reddish brown veins, contracted 

 above the middle; stigmas 5; ovary cylindrical below, 

 dilated into a broad 5-lobed top with a deep depression 

 in the center, 5-celled: seeds obovate-club-shaped. B.M. 

 5920. I.H. 18:75. F.S. 14:1440. G.C. III. 7:84, 85; 

 17:304; 24:339. Int. to cult, about 1861. w. M. 



As greenhouse plants, Darlingtonias require the same 

 treatment as their allies, Sarracenias, Dioneas and Dro- 

 seras. A well grown collection of these plants is not 

 only very interesting and curious, but also very beauti- 

 ful. To succeed, they must occupy a shaded position, 

 and never be allowed to become dry. Give a cool, moist, 

 even temperature. If possible a glass case should 

 be provided for them, with provision made for ven- 

 tilation; a constant moist atmosphere can be more 

 easily maintained, and at the same time the green- 

 house in which they are grown may be freely ven- 

 tilated without injury to these plants. The material 

 in which they grow best is two-thirds fern root fiber 

 with the dust shaken out, and one-third chopped sphag- 

 num moss and silver sand, with a few nodules of char- 

 coal added. About the first week in July is perhaps the 

 best time for potting, though one must be guided by the 

 condition of the plants, choosing a time when they 

 are the least active. When well established they will 

 only require potting once in two years. The pots should 

 be placed in pot saucers as a safeguard against their 

 ever becoming dry, and all the space between the pots 

 should be filled with sphagnum moss up to the rims of 

 the pots. A temperature of 40 to 45 during winter, with 

 a gradual rise as the days lengthen in spring, will suit 

 them admirably. During the summer they should be 

 kept well shaded, or they may be removed to a well 

 shaded frame outside, in some secluded position free 

 from hot, drying winds. Propagation of these plants is 

 effected by division of the roots, or by seeds sown on 

 live sphagnum moss in pans, the moss being made very 

 even and the pans placed either under a bell jar or glass 

 case in a cool, moist atmosphere. [For detailed English 

 experience, see G.C. III. 24:338.] 



EDWARD J. CANNING. 



Darlingtonia Court ii was named after William Court, 

 for many years hybridizer and traveler for James 

 Veitch & Son. Some say it is a hybrid between a 



Nepenthes and Uurlingtonia Culifornicn. Its Ivs. or 

 pitchers are shorter and stouter than those of D. Cali- 

 fornica, and more rounded at the mouth. The stalks of 

 the pitchers bend out almost horizontally from the base 

 or crown of the plant and then be- 

 come erect. The treatment is much 

 the same as for J). Californica, ex- 

 cept that it must be kept indoors in 

 winter. It thrives well in a house 

 with Odontoglossum crispum and W 

 Masdevallia. It is generally sus- 

 pended like Nepenthes. The writer 

 has successfully grown it when it 

 was potted in peat or sphagnum, in a 



I 

 678. Young leaves of Darlingtonia. 



small pot which was inverted into a larger pot, with a 

 layer of sphagnum packed in between, and the whole 

 kept constantly moist. It is an interesting and attrac- 

 tive plant, and enjoys considerable popularity in Eng- 

 land. HENRY A. SIEBRECHT. 

 DARNEL. Lolium perenne. 



DASYLlRION (Greek, tufted lily). Liliacece. Highly 

 ornamental plants, well adapted for rockeries, for iso- 

 lated specimens on lawns, decoration of conservatories, 

 staircases, etc., and eminently suitable for terraces and 

 vases, in the formal style of gardening. Trunk short or 

 missing altogether : Ivs. in large number, inserted in a 

 symmetrical way, so as to form a dome or globe-shaped, 

 regular head, more or less serrulated, and in some 

 species ending in a brush-like tuft of dried fibers. The 

 tall panicles of numberless whitish green, minute flow- 

 ers are also a striking feature. Dasylirions generally 

 branch after blooming. They are of the easiest pos- 

 sible culture, and will stand some degrees of frost, par- 

 ticularly if kept dry. Easily propagated from seeds 

 and from cuttings of the branches when produced, as 

 they do not sucker as a rule. Six or perhaps more 

 species altogether. Natives of the arid region com- 

 prising southwestern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona 

 and northern Mexico. The following are grown in south- 

 ern gardens and in conservatories up north, but not as 

 much as they deserve. p. FRANCESCHI. 



These plants are inferior to Yucca filamentosa in 

 hardiness and in showiness and regularity of flowering, 

 but they have an individuality of their own which should 

 commend them to amateurs who like things that every- 

 body doesn't have. They are especially esteemed in 

 California, where the great flower-stalks, 8 or 10 ft. high, 



