PITCHER PLANT. 75 



the leaf, and to produce a corresponding rounding of the outer por- 

 tion, which is thus thrown back, and enables the moisture more readily 

 to fill the cup. Quantities of small flies, l)eelles. and other insects, 

 enter the pitcher, possibly for shelter, but are unable to effect a 

 rttuin, owing to the rcflexed biistly hairs that line the upper part 

 of the tube and lip, and thus find a watery grave in the moisture 

 that fills the hollow below. 



The tall stately flower of the Pitcher Plant is not less worthy 

 of our attention than the curiously formed leaves. The smooth 

 round simple scape rises from the centre of the plant to the height 

 of 18 inches to 2 feet. The fiower is single and terminal, composed 

 of 5 sepals, with three little bracts : 5 blunt broad petals of a dull 

 purplish-red colour, sometimes red and light-yellowish green ; and in 

 one variety the petals are mostly of a pale-green hue, and there is 

 an absence of the crimson veins in the leafage. The petals are 

 incurved or bent downwards towards the centre. The stamens arc 

 numerous. The ovary is 5-celled, and the style is expanded at the 

 summit into a 5 angled, 5 rayed umbrella-like hood, which conceals 

 beneath it 5 delicate rays, each terminating in a little hooked stigma. 

 The capsule or seed vessel is 5-celled and 5-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 be recognized in a drawing, unless a strictly 

 botanical one, with all its interiorp arts dissected, and because the 

 Pitcher Plant has lately attracted much attention by its rej>uted 

 medicinal qualities in cases of small-pox, 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 



