164 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



informed. But my material was not sufficiently ample 

 nor in the best condition to experiment with very ex- 

 tensively ; yet my curiosity was sufficiently aroused to 

 impel me to visit Florida, where I could find winter- 

 blooming species of pinguicula, which, so far as I knew, 

 no one had experimented with. 



I reached Florida in November, 1875, and soon found 

 three species in large number — Pinguicula pumila, 

 P. lutea, and P. elatior. They were already in a good 

 condition to work with, the fall and winter seeming to 

 be their growing season. P. pumila commenced bloom- 

 ing early in December, and in January the damp pine- 

 barrens were flecked with the large bright-yellow flow- 

 ers of P. lutea and the showy purple ones of P. elatior. 



From all appearance these plants are annuals. They 

 commence blooming in winter, and by the time the 

 rainy season begins in spring the seeds are ripening and 

 falling to the ground; the young plants soon become 

 established, and evidently grow slowly during the sum- 

 mer and fall, or until about November. I did not find 

 a single plant of either species but what bloomed dur- 

 ing the winter or early spring, which inclines me to 

 the opinion that they cannot be perennial. At all 

 events the winter, or dry season, is the time they make 

 their most rapid growth ; and we can see that during 

 the dry season they would be much more likely to 

 digest the prey they capture, as in late spring and sum- 

 mer it rains almost daily, when the insects would be 

 washed away. 



