42 SARRACENIACEiE. Sarracenia. 



smooth and somewhat pohshcd ; the lower part furnished with very slender hairs pointing 

 downward. Scape 10-16 inches high, smooth. Flower about two inches in diameter. 

 Bracts ovate, about four lines long, resembling a small exterior calyx or involucre. Sepals 

 ovate, obtuse, of a dull green color mi.xed with purple. Petals panduriform, purple, willi a 

 broad claw, the lamina inflected over the stigma. Stamens concealed by the ample stigma : 

 tilaments short : authors large, oblong : pollen globular, extremely minute. Style about a line 

 Ion" : stigma an inch or more in diameter, a little concave in the centre, marked on the upper 

 surface with five radiating lines, which terminate in notched angles or lobes. The true stigmas 

 are five in number, and situated at the angles of the large peltate body. Capsule roundish, 

 obtusely 5-angled, the surface rough like shagreen. Seeds very numerous, about a line in 

 length, covering the large placentae that project into the cells : raphe very broad and somewhat 

 cristate ; testa rough, thick and crustaceous. 



Swamps, particularly where Sphagnum abounds : rather common. Fl. May - June. Fr. 

 August. The variety with yellowish flowers was found in Junius, Seneca county, by Dr. Sart- 

 well, and hitherto has not been observed in any other part of the State. It was first discovered 

 about twenty-five years ago, in Northampton, Massachusetts, by the late Prof. Eaton, who 

 at first regarded it as a mere variety of -S. purpurea, but afterwards he described it as a dis- 

 tinct species. It does not differ essentially from the common variety, except in the color of 

 the flower. The two kijids of fohage noticed by Mr. Eaton are not uncommon in the purple- 

 flowered form ; the new and imperfectly developed leaves, and the persistent leaves of the 

 previous season, being found on the same specimen. 



The genus Sarracenia (of which there are six species known, all of them peculiar to North 

 America, and five of them growing exclusively in the southern Slates) is remarkable for 

 Its hollow, pitcher-form leaves, and for the arrangement of the hairs upon the lamina and in 

 the tube. The cavity is often found partly full of water, which seems to be derived from 

 rain and dews ; for there is no evidence of its being secreted by the hairs of the lube, as sup- 

 posed by Lindley. The cavity always contains dead insects, and is sometimes one-third filled 

 with lliem, so that in warm weather I have known their putrescence to render the swamp, 

 where the plant abounds, highly ofi'ensive. The insects, in creeping over the hairy surface 

 of the lamina, find it difiicult to return, in consequence of their feet becoming wedged in the 

 short stiff hairs which extend beyond the orifice. Passing over the smooth upper surface of 

 the tube, they are again detained by the hairs below, where they are either drowned in the 

 water usually contained in the tube, or starved to death. What purpose, in the economy of 

 the plant, is thus accomplished, has never been determined. — S. purpurea is, in some parts 

 of the State, known by the name of the American Pitcher-plant ; in other places, it is called 

 the Huntsman's Cup. 



