SAPROPHYTES AND CARNIVOROUS PLANTS 409 



dodder, 1 which is common all over the central and the north- 

 eastern states, grows freely on many kinds of plants, from 

 golden-rods to willows. 



381. Saprophytes. A saprophyte (meaning decay plant) is 

 a plant of which the nutrition is largely or wholly dependent 

 on the absorption of organic 



material, usually when in a 

 state of fermentation or de- 

 cay. Most plants of this kind 

 are fungi (Chapter xxn), but 

 there are a few saprophytic 

 spermatophytes. Plants like 

 the Indian pipe (Monotropa), 

 of coniferous woods, appear 

 often to be symbiotic sap- 

 rophytes, their mycorrhiza 

 absorbing much from the 

 decaying materials in which 

 they are rooted. Such plants, 

 destitute of chlorophyll, can 

 do no photosynthetic work. 



382. Carnivorous plants. 

 In the ordinary pitcher 

 plants (Fig. 311) the leaf 

 appears in the shape of a 

 more or less hooded pitcher. 

 These pitchers are usually 

 partly filled with water, and 

 in this water very many 

 drowned and decaying 



insects are commonly to be found. The insects have flown or 

 crawled into the pitcher, and, once inside, have been unable 

 to escape on account of the dense growth of bristly hairs about 

 the mouth, all pointing inward and downward. How much the 

 1 Cuscuta Gronovii. 



FIG. 311. Common pitcher plant 

 (Sarracenia purpurea) 



At the right, one of the pitcher-like leaves is 

 shown in cross section 



