STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
PrrcHER PLANT—SOLpDIER’s DRINKING Curp—Sarracenia 
purpurea (L.). 
(PLATE XIV.) 
In passing a bed of these most remarkable plants even 
the most casual observer must be struck by their appear- 
ance. Indeed, from root to flower they are in every way 
worthy of our notice and admiration. 
The Pitcher Plant is by no means one of those flowers 
found only in inaccessible bogs and dense cedar-swamps, as 
are some of our rare and lovely Orchids. In almost any 
grassy swamp, at the borders of low-lying lakes and 
beaver-meadows—often in wet, spongy meadows—it may 
be found forming large beds of luxuriant growth. 
When wet with recent showers, or glistening with dew- 
drops, the rich crimson veinings of the broadly-scalloped 
lip of the tubular leaf (which is thickly beset with fine 
stiff silvery hairs) retain the moisture and shine and 
glisten in the sunlight. 
The root-stock is thick and bears many fibres. The 
tubular leaves are of a reddish tinge on the outer and 
convex side, but of a delicate light green within. The 
texture is soft, smooth and leathery; the base of the leaf 
at the root is narrow and pipe-stem-like, expanding into a 
large hollow receptable capable of containing a wine-glass- 
full of liquid; even in dry seasons this cup is rarely found 
empty. The hollow form of the leaves and the broad ewer- 
like lips have obtained for the plant its local and wide- 
spread names of “ Pitcher Plant” and “Soldier’s Drinking 
Cup.” This last name I had from a poor old emigrant 
pensioner who brought me a specimen of the plant from the 
banks of a half-dried up lake near which he was located, with 
the remark: “ Many a draught of blessed water have we poor 
soldiers had, when in Egypt, out of the leaves of a plant 
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