SARRACENIACE^-PITCHER PLANT 

 FAMILY 



PITCHER PLANT. HUNTSMAN'S CUP 



Sarrachiia purpurea. 



Named in honor of Dr. Sarracin, a botanist of Quebec. 



A curious and interesting plant growing in peat-bogs throughout the 

 North, remarkable because of its peculiar trumpet-shaped leaves. 

 Perennial. May, June. 



Leaves. — ^Tufted, yellowish-green with red-purple veining, hollow, 

 pitcher-shaped, curved, winged, with an erect hood at the top and at 

 the base narrowing to a petiole. Four to ten inches long, usually half 

 filled with water and the fragments of insects. Glabrous except the 

 inner side of the hood and the inner surface of the pitcher, which are 

 clothed with hairs pointing downward. 



Scape. — One-flowered, twelve to fourteen inches high. 



Flowers. — Nodding, solitary, reddish-purple and yellowish-green. 



Sepals. — Five, with three bractlets at base, colored, persistent. 



Petals. — ^Five, fiddle-shaped, arched over the greenish-yellow style. 



Stamens. — Many. 



Ovary.- — Five-celled, globose, crowned with a short style which is 

 expanded at the summit into a very broad and petal-like five-angled, 

 five-rayed, umbrella-shaped body; the five delicate rays terminating 

 under the angles in as many little hooked stigmas. 



Capsule. — Five-celled, many seeded. 



The extraordinary character of the leaves of Sarracenia pur- 

 purea invests the plant with a peculiar interest. These are long, 

 ascending, trumpet-shaped cups lined with hairs pointing down- 

 ward, apparently arranged with sinister intent. The descent to 

 Avemus is easy, but woe-betide the luckless fly that gets to the 

 bottom, for there is no possible return. The sticky exudation 

 weighs his feet, the bristling hairs impede his upward progress, 



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