WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 123 



Pitcher Plant Family 



Sarracenia c e a e 



Pitcher Plant; Sidesaddle Flower 



Sarracenia purpurea Linnaeus 



Plate 83 



Leaves tufted, ascending, hollow, much inflated and trumpet-shaped, 

 4 to 12 inches long, with a broad, lateral wing and an erect terminal lid or 

 lamina, glabrous except the inner side of the lamina and the inner surface 

 of the pitchers, which are densely clothed with stiff, reflexed hairs, purple- 

 veined or sometimes green, yellowish or reddish all over, narrowed into 

 petioles below, persistent over winter. Roots large, stout and fibrous. 

 Flowers solitary on slender scapes, i to 2 feet high, nodding, deep purple 

 or rarely yellow, nearly globose, i| to 2\ inches broad; sepals five, green, 

 with three or four bracts at the base; petals five, obovate, narrowed in the 

 middle, incurved over the yellowish style. Style dilated at the apex into 

 a peltate umbrellalike structure with five rays which terminate under its 

 angles in hooked stigmas. 



In peat bogs and wet sphagnous places, Labrador to the Canadian 

 Rocky mountains, Florida, Kentucky and Iowa. Flowering in May and 

 June. The pitcher-shaped leaves usually contain more or less water in 

 which are numerous drowned insects which furnish food for the larvae of 

 a fly which is instrumental in the cross-pollination of the flowers. 



Sundew Family 



Droseraceae 



Spatulate-leaved Sundew 



Drosera intermedia (Linnaeus) Hayne 



Plate 84 



A tufted bog plant with erect, flowering scapes, 2 to 8 inches high, 

 and elongated rootstocks. Leaf blades ascending, spatulate, obtuse at the 

 apex, one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch long, one-half to one-third as 



