84 



SARRACENIACE^E. 



Preparations. — There are neither official nor commercial preparations ; 

 and even the rhizome itself is seldom kept by the apothecaries. 



Medical Properties and Uses.— Records of the employment of this 

 plant are extremely meagre in medical literature. It has been used as an 

 astringent in dysentery, diarrhoea, and catarrhal affections, in the last- 

 named cases "both internally and locally. It has also been employed 

 topically as a discutient, and as an astringent poultice to suppurating ul- 

 cers. As it depends for its efficacy upon the tannic and gallic acids which 

 it contains, it is hardly worthy of consideration when a choice of remedies 

 is to be made. 



SARRACEN1ACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Perennial bog or marsh plants, with hollow, 

 pitcher-like, or trumpet-shaped radical leaves and hypogynous, polyan- 

 drous flowers. 



A small and unimportant though curious order of plants, comprising 

 but three genera, of which two, Sarracenia and Darlingtonia, are indigenous 

 to North America. 



SARRACENIA.— Pitcher-Plant. 



Character of the Genus. — Sepals 5, with 3 bractlets at their base, col- 

 ored, persistent. Petals 5, oblong or obovate, incurved upon the ovary, 

 colored, deciduous. Both sepals and petals are imbricate in aestivation. 

 Stamens indefinite in number, hypogynous ; anthers 

 oblong, adnate, 2-celled, bursting internally and longi- 

 tudinally. Ovary solitary, 5-celled, many-ovuled ; style 

 short, expanded at its summit into a large, 5-angled, 

 umbrella-shaped lamina, with a small, incurved stigma 

 at each angle. Capsule, crowned by the persistent 

 style, 5-celled, each cell opening by a loculicidal valve. 

 Seeds very numerous, minute, attached to 5 placentae 

 which project from the axis into the cavity of the cells. 

 Perennial herbs, with short, fibrous-rooted rhizomes, 

 radical, hollow, pitcher-like, or trumpet-shaped leaves, 

 and naked scapes, bearing each a single nodding flower. 

 Sarracenia purpurea Linne. — Pitcher -Plant, Side- 

 saddle Flower. 



Description. — Calyx : sepals 1 inch long, half as wide, 

 brownish-red or purplish externally, greenish within. 

 Corolla : petals longer and narrower than the sepals, 

 contracted toward, dilated at, the base, lighter in 

 color externally than the sepals, still lighter within, folding inward, and 

 nearly concealing the expanded style. Stamens numerous, completely 

 covered by the style, which is 1 inch or more wide, light grayish- 



Fig. 102. — Sarracenia 

 purpurea. 



