The Pitcher Plant and its Uses. 93 



divining, in a remarkable manner, the particular spots where 

 these plants grow in luxuriance. 



Conspicuous among the flora are various sorts of orchises,* 

 remarkable for elegance and beauty, while the well-known 

 Pitcher Plant (S. purpurea) is still more attractive on account 

 of the remarkable construction of its foliage. Each leaf has 

 a rounded arching hood at the apex, the interior of which is 

 clothed with stiff dagger-shaped bristles pointing downwards, 

 while the cavity is more or less filled with water and drowned 

 insects, also live worms and larvae. 



It would be difficult to assign a reason for this unusual 

 construction of the leaf, inasmuch as there is no need of any 

 such contrivance to hold water, seeing that the plant is al- 

 ways well supplied from the wet bog in which it grows, unless, 

 as indicated by Gray,f the drowned insects furnish manure to 

 nourish it.J 



What induces the fly to go into the cavity ? Perhaps at- 

 tracted by the hope of procuring subsistence, after traversing 

 the part covered with bristles, it finds itself unable to return; 

 or, losing its footing, falls into the well, from whence it is 

 unable to extricate itself on account of these obstacles. 



* Among others I may mention Plantanthea obtusiata, rotundifolid y 

 oriculata, and the very attractive blephariglottis, and its gorge ous ally 

 the great purple orchis (pera?ncena) Arthusa bulbosa, and many other 

 orchidacecz, which the student will be enabled to determine from the very 

 excellent and clear description of Asa Gray, " First Lessons in Botany," 

 p. 442, et seq. 



t Op. tit., p. 51. 



% The Indian's idea is that the liquid is filtered up the leaf stalk, and 

 therefore is purer than any other water ; hence he is always wishful to 

 direct the attention of the traveller by quaffing its contents. I well recol- 

 lect the disgust depicted on the countenance of my companion, who first 

 drew my attention to the plant, when, after he had demonstrated the circum- 

 stance by drinking the contents of several pitchers, I pointed out numbers 

 of drowned flies and red worms among the bristles. Moreover the water 

 is insipid, and is, no doubt, the accumulation of rain drippings from the 

 hood, as the pitcher gets nearly filled during wet weather, whilst the con. 

 tents remain frozen throughout winter. 



