STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
toward the centre. The stamens are numerous. The ovary is 
five-celled, and the style is expanded at the summit into a 
five-angled five-rayed umbrella-like scalloped mantle, which 
conceals beneath it five delicate rays, each terminating in a 
little hooked stigma. The capsule, or seed-vessel, is five- 
celled and five-valved; seeds numerous. 
I have been more minute in the description of this 
interesting plant because much of its peculiar organization 
is hidden from the eye and cannot even be recognized in 2 
drawing, unless it be a strictly botanical one with all its 
interior parts dissected; and also because the Pitcher 
Plant has lately attracted much attention by its reputed 
medicinal qualities in cases of smallpox, that loathsome 
scourge of the human race. A decoction from the root of 
this plant has been said to lessen all the more violent 
symptoms of the disorder. If this be really so its use 
and application should be widely known; fortunately, the 
remedy would be within the reach of everyone; like many 
of our sanative herbs, it is to be found without difficulty, 
and being so remarkable in its appearance, can never be 
mistaken by the most ignorant of our country herbalists for 
any injurious substitute.* 
WILD ORANGE Lity—Lilium Philadelphicum (Lin.). 
(PLATE. XIII.) 
“* Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither 
do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was 
not arrayed like one of these.” 
The word lily is said to be derived from a Celtic word, 
li, which signifies whiteness; also from the Greek lirion. 
Probably the stately Lily of the garden, Lilium candidum, 
*T regret to be compelled to say that later experience has dispelled belief in the 
virtue of the Pitcher Plant, no such good results having been obtained from repeated 
trials in cases of that direful disease, smallpox. 
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