93 



description from some book. I'or its occurrence in the most 

 fertile region of Alabama, and so far from all known stations, 

 seems extremeK' improbable. I ha\e been in that neighborhood 

 se\eral times, and ha\e not seen exen a Sarracenia within 35 

 miles of the place.' though it is barely possible that some 

 Drosera could be found in a boggy spot on one of the gravelly 

 hillsides which are seen in a few places in that part of the black 

 belt. 



Dr. Coker in his paper does not indicate the habitat of 

 Diouaea, except in quotations from pre\ious writers, or suggest 

 any environmental factor which might be responsible for giving 

 it (and several other plants) such a restricted range. Although 

 I have been in nearly e\ery county in which it is known to grow, 

 I never happened to find it; but I understand that its habitat 

 is savannas or wet pine-barrens, like several species of Sar- 

 racenia. 



In 1907 (Torreya 7:43; Science II, 25:540; Bull. Torrey 

 Club 34:365), after making my first visit to Wilmington the 

 previous summer, I obser^'ed that Dionaea is one of about half a 

 dozen species of plants found only within about 100 miles of the 

 mouth of the Cape Fear River, and there is a still larger num- 

 ber of species, mostly pine-barren bog plants, which are more 

 abundant in that neighborhood than at twice that distance, 

 though most of them reappear in Georgia. I offered no reasona- 

 ble explanation at the time, but about three years later (Bull. 

 Torrey Bot. Club 37:415-418) I pointed out that the Cape 

 Fear pine-barren region (mapped on pages 407 and 592 of the 

 same volume) had less than one-thousandth of its area culti- 

 vated in cotton in 1880, and was characterized by having a 

 larger proportion of its rainfall in summer than surrounding 

 regions; which seems a sufficient explanation of the variety 

 and abundance of bog plants there. (The Alabama locality 

 mentioned above has a very different type of rainfall, with 

 rather dry summers.) 



An amendment to this observation can now be made by 

 taking advantage of a later climatological discovery; namely, 

 that the principal pine-barren regions not only have abundant 

 rain in summer (which is true also of the upper Mississippi 

 valley, which has much more fertile soil and very different 

 vegetation), but (quite unlike the upper Mississippi valley) 



1 See Torreya 22:57-60. 1922. 



