SARRACENIA RUBRA.—RED-FLOWERED TKUMPET LEAF, 39 
been produced in this form for the purpose of insect-catching, it 
may be well to note that in Willdenow’s * Species Plantarum” this 
singular passage occurs: “Sic metamorphosis folii Nymph in 
folium Sarraceniz, ut ipsa aquam pluvialem excipiens et retinens 
extra aquas crescat; mira nature providentia;” which may be 
translated: “Such is the metamorphis of the leaf of the Nymphza 
into that of the Sarracenia, in order that, by receiving and retain- 
ing rain water, it may, by a wonderful provision of nature, grow 
where there is no water.” The sentence is very remarkable as 
showing that the early fathers of modern botany had anticipated 
the celebrated men of our time in conceiving the theory of evo- 
lution. 
As to the idea that these pitchers are modified petioles, and 
that the leaf blade is something else, it is highly probable that 
all petioles are modified leaf blades, and that the distinction 
between the two is of practical value only as a help in descrip- 
tion and classification. It is likely that the primordial plan is 
that of a lobed leaf, such as we might find in the Lirzodendron, 
or “tulip tree,’ and that the lower lobes became united at their 
edges, leaving the upper, now forming the lid, free—and that the 
petioles of many plants may be formed in the same manner. 
However, as regards the Sarracenia, the manner in which the 
“wing” is developed in S. pszdlacina, leaving the “ pitcher” little 
more than a mid-rib, is very suggestive. But this is much better 
seen by a singular genus of this same order, Sarraceniacee, found 
in Guayana by Sir R. Schomberg, called Heliamphora nutans, in 
which the primordial leaf was evidently three-lobed, and from the 
orifice is so slit down on one side that we should as soon think 
of dividing the spathe of an arum into petiole and leaf-blade as 
this. We can easily see from the //eanephora that we may more 
correctly say the pitcher of the Sarracenia is a folded leaf than 
an inflated petiole. 
Among the interesting facts brought out within recent years 
is that of the different species of Sarracenia intercrossing freely 
together. Mr. David Moore, of the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens 
