118 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 
The distribution of the family is rather remarkable. Chrysamphora, 
the Californian pitcher-plant, belongs only to the Pacific coast, and is 
remarkable on account of the large, bifurcated hood to the pitchers, 
suggestive of a fish’s tail. Heliamphora is confined to the mountains of 
Venezuela; while the species of Sarracenia are among the most con- 
spicuous plants of the southern savannahs and pine barrens, one (S. pur- 
urea) extending northward into Canada. The photograph reproduced 
in Fig. 102 gives an excellent idea of the plant in its natural habitat; its 
leaves are more graceful in shape than those of any other species. In 
the South 8. psittacina, with small red flowers, and leaves curiously 
resembling the outline of a parrot’s head and body, replaces S. pur- 
purea; while 8. flava, S. Drummondii and S. variolaris have very large, 
erect, funnel-shaped leaves, often handsomely variegated. 
The mode in which insects are attracted 
to these death traps is very ingenious. In 
most species there is a sweet exudation on 
the inner surface of the tubular leaf just be- 
neath the protective flaps or hood. Insects 
crawl down to feed upon this, and soon come 
upon a smooth polished ‘area, which causes 
them to slip farther down; a succession of 
slender hairs, all pointing the same way, ren- 
ders the remainder of the descent easy, and 
effectually precludes all attempts of the 
struggling insects to climb out by the same 
path. 
Family Nepenthaceae. East Indian 
Pitcher-plant Family. Consists of the single 
genus Nepenthes, embracing about 40 species, 
natives principally of the Indo-Malayan 
Fig. 103. Siittaperneaned sun- Tegion, one in Madagascar. They are herbs 
dew (Drosera intermedia) showing or somewhat shrubby plants, with dioecious 
enlarged flower and fruit. After ‘ aaa 
Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. Northeast. flowers, the sterile containing about 16 an- 
U.S. thers united in a head, thé fertile with a sin- 
gle 4-celled free ovary; calyx 4-parted, petals none. The leaves are 
even more remarkable than those of the Sarraceniaceae, for in addition 
to the pitchers or traps, the petiole develops, in one portion, to a broad 
expanded blade, fulfilling the functions of an ordinary leaf, and in 
another portion is tough and wiry, acting as a tendril to support the 
whole leaf and its contents. The size and shape of the pitchers differ 
considerably. In many of them the hood forms a perfect lid, closing 
the mouth of the pitcher completely. Several are in greenhouse culti- 
vation, the most common being probably N. Rafflesiana. 
