STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



PITCHER PLANT SOLDIER'S DRINKING CUP Sarracenia 



purpurea (L.). 



(PLATE XIV.) 



In passing a bed of these most remarkable plants even 

 the most casual observer must be struck by their appear- 

 ance. Indeed, from root to flower they are in every way 

 worthy of our notice and admiration. 



The Pitcher Plant is by no means one of those flowers 

 found only in inaccessible bogs and dense cedar-swamps, as 

 are some of our rare and lovely Orchids. In almost any 

 grassy swamp, at the borders of low-lying lakes and 

 beaver-meadows often in wet, spongy meadows it may 

 be found forming large beds of luxuriant growth. 



When wet with , recent showers, or glistening with dew- 

 drops, the rich crimson veinings of the broadly-scalloped 

 lip of the tubular leaf (which is thickly beset with fine 

 stiff silvery hairs) retain the moisture and shine and 

 glisten in the sunlight. 



The root-stock is thick and bears many fibres. The 

 tubular leaves are of a reddish tinge on the outer and 

 convex side, but of a delicate light green within. The 

 texture is soft, smooth and leathery; the base of the leaf 

 at the root is narrow and pipe-stem-like, expanding into a 

 large hollow receptable capable of containing a wine-glass- 

 full of liquid; even in dry seasons this cup is rarely found 

 empty. The hollow form of the leaves and the broad ewer- 

 like lips have obtained for the plant its local and wide- 

 spread names of " Pitcher Plant " and " Soldier's Drinking 

 Cup." This last name I had from a poor old emigrant 

 pensioner who brought me a specimen of the plant from the 

 banks of a half-dried up lake near which he was located, with 

 the remark : " Many a draught of blessed water have we poor 

 soldiers had, when in Egypt, out of the leaves of a plant 



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