TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 
Dr. Mellichamp, who is now resident in the district in which Dr. Macbride 
made his observations, has added a good many ap oes to our Imowledge. He 
first investigated the fluid which is secreted at the bottom of the tubes. He satis- 
fied himself that it was really ‘secreted, and describes it as mucilaginous, but 
leaving in the mouth a peculiar astringency. He compared the action of this fluid 
with that of distilled water on pieces of fresh venison, and found that after fifteen 
hours the fluid had produced most change, and also most smell; he therefore con- 
cluded that as the leaves; when stuffed with insects become most disgusting in 
odour, we have to do, not with a true digestion, but with an accelerated decom- 
position. Although he did not attribute any true digestive power to the fluid 
secreted by the pitchers, he found that it had a remarkable anesthetic effect upon 
flies immersed in it. He remarked that “a fly when thrown into water is very 
oe to escape, as the fluid seems to run from its wings,” but it never escaped from 
the Sarracemia-secretion. About half a minute after being thrown in, the fly 
became to all appearance dead, though if removed it gradually recovered in from 
half an hour to an hour. According to Dr. Mellickamp, the sugary lure discovered 
by Dr. Macbride at the mouth of the pitchers is not found on either the young 
ones of one season, nor the older ones of the previous year. He found, however, 
that about May it could be detected without difficulty; and, more wonderful still, 
that there is a honey-baited pathway leading directly from the ground to the 
mouth, along the broad wing of the pitcher, up which insects are led to their 
destruction *. 
From these narratives it is evident that there are two very different types of 
pitcher in Sarracenia, and an examination of the species shows that there must 
probably be three. These may be primarily classified into those with the mouth 
open and lid erect, and which consequently receive the rain-water in more or less 
silane; and those with the mouth closed by the lid, into which rain can hardly, 
if at all, find ingress. 
To the first of these belongs the well-known S. purpurea, with inclined pitchers 
and a lid so disposed as to direct all the rain that falls upon it into the pitcher ; 
also S. flava, rubra, and Drummondii, all with erect pitchers and vertical lids. In 
these three the lid in a young state arches over the mouth, and in an old state 
stands nearly erect, and_has the sides so reflected that the rain which falls on its 
upper surface is guided down the outside of the back of the pitcher, as if to prevent 
the flooding of the latter. 
To the second group belong S. psittacina and S. variolaris. 
_ The tissues of the internal surfaces of the pitchers are singularly beautiful. They 
have been described in one species only, S. purpurea, by August Vogl} ; but from 
this all the other species which I have examined differ materially. Beginning 
from the upper part of the pitcher, there are four surfaces, characterized by different 
tissues, which 1 shall name and define as follows :— 
1. An attractive surface, occupying the inner surface of the lid, which possesses 
stomata, and (in common with the mouth of the pitcher) with minute honey- 
secreting glands; it is further often more highly coloured than any other part of 
the pitcher, in order to attract insects to the honey. 
2. A conducting surface, which is opaque, formed of glassy cells, which are pro- 
duced into deflexed, short, conical processes. These processes, overlapping like 
the tiles of a house, form a surface down which an insect slips, and affords no foot- 
hold to an insect attempting to crawl up again. 
8. A glandular surface (seen in S. purpurea), which occupies a considerable 
portion of the cavity of the pitcher below the conducting surface. It is formed of 
-a layer of iden with sinuous cells, and is studded with glands; and being 
smooth and polished, this too affords no foothold for escaping insects, 
4. A detentive surface, which occupies the lower part of the pitcher, in some cases 
for nearly its whole length. It possesses no cuticle, and is studded with detlexed, 
rigid, glass-like, needle-formed hairs, which further converge towards the axis of 
. * Dr. Mellichamp’s observations were communicated to Prof. Asa Gray, who gave an 
account of them in the ‘New York Tribune,’ which was reprinted in the ‘ Gardeners’ 
Chronicle,’ June 27, 1874, p. 818. 
t Wien. Sitzungsberichte der k, k, Akad. (1865) vol. 1. p. 281. 
