SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. * 93 



one which can associate the decaying insects in some 

 manner with the roots, by demonstration that the 

 nitrogenous matter is conveyed from the pitchers by 

 decay or puncture at the base, or some such means, 

 whereby the generous fluid may be conveyed into the 

 soil, and absorbed by the plant in the ordinary 

 manner. 



" It must be quite certain that the insects which go 

 on accumulating in the pitchers of Sarracenia are far 

 in excess of its needs for any legitimate process of 

 digestion. They decompose, and various insects, too 

 wary to be entrapped themselves, seem habitually to 

 drop their eggs into the open mouth of the pitchers, 

 to take advantage of the accumulation of food. The 

 old pitchers arc consequently found to contain living 

 larvae and maggots, a sufficient proof that the original 

 properties of the fluid which they secreted must have 

 become exhausted. And Barton says that various 

 insectivorous birds slit open the pitchers with their 

 beaks to get at their contents." 



At one of the meetings of the Scientific Committee 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, during 1879, it 

 was reported that a cultivator of Sarracenias in this 

 country had one species, the pitchers of which 

 furnished such an attraction to flies, that they soon 

 became completely gorged ; and thus, as the pitchers 

 were destroyed, the plants could not be successfully 

 cultivated until a device was discovered, which con- 



