STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



toward the centre. The stamens are numerous. The ovary is 

 five-celled, and the style is expanded at the summit into a 

 five-angled five-rayed umbrella-like scalloped mantle, which 

 conceals beneath it five delicate rays, each terminating in a 

 little hooked stigma. The capsule, or seed-vessel, is five- 

 celled and five-valved; seeds numerous. 



I have been more minute in the description of this 

 interesting plant because much of its peculiar organization 

 is hidden from the eye and cannot even be recognized in a 

 drawing, unless it be a strictly botanical one with all its 

 interior parts dissected; and also because the Pitcher 

 Plant has lately attracted much attention by its reputed 

 medicinal qualities in cases of smallpox, that loathsome 

 scourge of the human race. A decoction from the root of 

 this plant has been said to lessen all the more violent 

 symptoms of the disorder. If this be really so its use 

 and application should be widely known ; fortunately, the 

 remedy would be within the reach of everyone; like many 

 of our sanative herbs, it is to be found without difficulty, 

 and being so remarkable in its appearance, can never be 

 mistaken by the most ignorant of our country herbalists for 

 any injurious substitute.* 



WILD ORANGE LILY Lilium Philadelphicum (Lin.). 



(PLATE XIII.) 



" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither 

 do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was 

 not arrayed like one of these." 



The word lily is said to be derived from a Celtic word, 

 li, which signifies whiteness; also from the Greek lirion. 

 Probably the stately Lily of the garden, Lilium candidum? 



* I regret to be compelled to say that later experience has dispelled belief in the 

 virtue of the Pitcher Plant, no such good results having been obtained from repeated 

 trials in cases of that direful disease, smallpox. 



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