40 THE FLORIST AND 



scription — -which is better than any thing I could say in regard to the plant? 

 even were the specimens before me. 



The plant is perennial. " Root-stock short and thick, producing numer- 

 ous stout, dark-brown, fibrous roots. Leaves all radical ; the adult ones from 

 eighteen inches to two feet or more in length; the petiole or pitcher tubular, 

 gradually tapering downward, and singularly twisted on its axis about half 

 a turn, marked with strong parallel and longitudinal veins, which are con- 

 nected by very slender veinlets. The summit is vaulted, and formed into a 

 sac about the size of a hen's egg, on the under side of which is an oval ori- 

 fice about half-an-inch in diameter, opening into the cavity of the pitcher* 

 The areolae of the sac, and also of the back of the tube, on the upper part, 

 are discolored (of a dull orange-color, in the dried specimens,) as in Sarra- 

 cenia variolaris and S. Drummondii. Along the inside of the petiole is a 

 narrow wing, which is single, except at the base, where it separates intotwa 

 plates that clasp the scope and the base of the superior leaves. The lamina 

 is narrow at the base, and deeply divided into two somewhat unequal widely- 

 spreading lobes, which are oblong-lanceolate, rather acute, bent downwards, 

 and often also backwards, the inner (or properly upper) surface very minute- 

 ly pubescent. The pitcher inside the hood is retrorsely hirsute, with short, 

 conical hairs ; from thence downward it is glabrous, but towards the base it 

 is lined with long, slender hairs, also pointing downwards; at the bottom re- 

 mains of insects were found. Neither these hairs, nor those of the lamina, 

 appeared to be of a secreting character. The scape is from one to four feet 

 long, flexuous, angular, glabrous, and furnished with sessile clasping straw- 

 colored scales. These scales are foliaceous and alternate , the lower ones 

 distant and lanceolate, the upper more and more approximated and broader, 

 while those near the flower are oblong-ovate and imbricate. They are marked 

 ed with longitudinal veins, which are forked above; the upper surface is paler 

 than the lower, and under a lens shews minute conical papillae. The flower, 

 when fully expanded, is nearly two inches in diameter. The calyx consists 

 of five oblong, rather acute sepals, which are of a pale straw-color, and are 

 quincuncially imbricated. There are no calyculate bractlets at their base. 

 The corolla is five-petalled, about the length of the calyx, and its aestivation 

 is likewise quincuncial. The petals are oblong, pale purple, marked with 

 deeper reticulated veins, and are apparently not connivent over the pistiL 

 They are furnished with a small ovate, concave lamina, and a very broad, 

 obovate claw, which is two or three times larger than the lamina. Stamens 

 from twelve to fifteen, hypogynous, inserted in a single series, and partly 

 concealed by the dilated summit of the ovary ; filaments short and rather 

 »tout ; anthers oblong, with the cells very unequal and opening longitudinal- 



