darn] 



QTf)e Ereajattrp of 23ataixn. 



384 



Californian Side-saddle flower or Pitcher- 1 

 plant, is a perennial herb growing in 

 marshy places. Its leaves all rise from the 

 root, the adult ones being from eighteen 

 inches to a foot or more in length, the 

 stalk or pitcher tubular, gradually tapering 

 downwards and singularly twisted on the 

 axis about half a turn, marked with strong 

 veins and slender veinlets, and the summit 

 I vaulted and formed into a sac about the 

 | size of a hen's egg, on the under side of 

 I which is an oval orifice about half an inch 

 in diameter opening into the cavity of the 

 pitcher ; the upper part of this tube is of a 

 dull orange colour. The tolade, which is 

 home on the end of the stalk or pitcher, 

 is narrowed at the base and deeply divided 

 J into two spreading nearly lance-shaped 

 I lobes, which are curved downwards, and 

 also often backwards, resembling the lop- 

 ears of some varieties of rabbit. The 

 pitcher inside the hood is furnished with 

 short conical hairs which point downwards, 

 and towards the base there are long slen- 

 der hairs also pointing downwards; re- 

 mains of insects are sometimes found at 

 the bottom. Dr. Torrey writes ' The orifice 

 of the pitcher being placed directly under 



Darlingtonia californica. 



the vaulted summit, cannot receive either 

 rain-water or dew, and yet Mr. Bracken- 

 ridge thinks he found some of the leaves 

 containing water; still I cannot think the 

 water was secreted by the hairs in the 

 tube.' The flowers are single and nodding 

 at the apex of a smooth stalk, which is 

 furnished with straw-coloured scales, and 

 varies from two to four feet in length. 

 When fully expanded the flower is about 

 two inches in diameter ; the calyx consists 

 of five straw-coloured acute sepals ; the 

 petals, of alike number, and pale purple in 

 colour, are narrowed and concave at the 

 apex and broad below ; the twelve to fifteen 

 stamens are nearly hidden by the project- 

 ing summit of the ovary, which is top- 

 shaped, slightly five-angled, and crowned 

 by a short style with a five-lobed stigma. 

 The fruit is a five-celled capsule about an 

 inch in length, with numerous seeds. The 

 forked blade of the leaf and the form of 

 the stigma distinguish the genus from 



Sarracenia, which has an umbrella-shaped 

 stigma. The genus is named in honour of 

 Dr. Darlington, of Pennsylvania. 



This account is chiefly abridged from a 

 paper of Dr. Torrey's in the Smithsonian 

 Contributions to Knowledge (Washington 

 1853), where a full history of this interest- 

 ing plant is given. It has been in cultiva- 

 tion in England. [A. A. B.] 



DARNEL. Lolium temulentwn. 



DARWINIA. A small genus of Chamce- 

 lauciacecB, named after Dr. Darwin. It has 

 a five-cleft calyx, the lobes of which are 

 roundish-cordate, concave, and full of pel- 

 lucid dots ; petals wanting ; stamens from 

 ten to fifteen, often joined in threes, in- 

 serted in the limb of the calyx, and hav- 

 ing very short flat glabrous filaments, and 

 anthers inserted by their bases ; style ta- 

 pering, bearded at the apex ; stigma a 

 pruinose dot ; ovary one-celled, single- 

 seeded ; seeds pentagonal pitted on the 

 surface. Heath-like shrubs of lowly growth 

 found in the extra-tropical portions of 

 Australia. The leaves are marked with 

 pellucid dots. [R. H.] 



DASYA. A lovely genus of rose-spored 

 A1cia>, allied to Polysiphonia, from which it 

 differs in its more compound stem, with 

 persistent coloured branchlets, which origi- 

 nate the pod-like receptacles of the tetra- 

 spores or stichidia. The species are far 

 more common in the Southern Ocean. We 

 have, however, a few fine species, of which 

 D. coccinea is well known to most col- 

 lectors of Algce from its bright scarlet 

 tint ; and there are representatives in the 

 Northern Hemisphere of four out of the 

 five sub-genera into which Dr. Harvey has 

 disposed the species in his Nereis Aus- 

 tralis. In Polysiphonia, it may be observed, 

 the tetraspores are imbedded in the 

 branches themselves, and not in distinct 

 organs. ' [M. J. B.] 



DASYCLADE^. A small natural order 

 of green-spored Algcp, which are either 

 naked or coated with carbonate of lime, 

 and have a one-celled simple or branched 

 axis which is whorled either throughout 

 its whole length or near the summit with 

 jointed branchlets. The fruit is contained 

 in free or laterally united sporangia. In 

 Acetabular la the stem is Aliform, and ends 

 in a target-shaped disc composed of spore- 

 bearing cells ; from the centre of this 

 the stem is continued bearing whorls of 

 forked fibres, and as the fruit cells fall off 

 below, new discs are formed above. Dasy- 

 cladus, the typical genus, has threads free 

 from any crust, and the axis is clothed 

 everywhere with whorls of jointed trifid 

 branchlets. The thread-shaped forked dis- 

 tinctly jointed frond of Cymopolia, on the 

 contrary, is densely incrusted, the crust 

 being pierced with pores, and the nodes 

 fringed with byssoid multifld fibres. We 

 have no representative of this curious 

 order on our coasts. Both Dasycladece 

 and Valoniacea? were first separated by 

 Kutzing from Siphonei, and are adopted by 

 Dr. Harvey in his admirable work on North 



