286 Pitcher Plants. [March, 
It is well known, as has been already noted, that the insects 
found in the leaves of the S. purpurea, meet their death by drown- 
ing, but with the S. flava the case is different. In regard to this 
Dr. Gray says (Am. F., ibid, p. 149-50): “That the insects which 
abundantly fall or find their way into Sarracenia pitchers do nt 
generally escape, but die and decompose there, is obvious. That 
more commonly they do not perish by drowning in $. flamis 
equally clear. While all the lower and gradually attenuated pat 
of the tube is filled with dead flies in our plants growing inthe 
house, there is only a little moisture at the very bottom. UI 
would hardly think that the fine and sharp-deflexed bristles, which 
line the lower half of the tube only in S. fava, would greatly 
impede the return of a fly, they lie so closely against the wall of 
the tube. But I find that a house-fly, either large or small, whe 
thrown into this lower part of the tube, is quite unable to get out, 
and there it perishes. Probably the advantage derived by te 
plant is equally secured, whether their prey decomposes 1n% 
moist air of the cavity or in the water in which they are often 
immersed.” ae 
This water, which is in the lower portion of the tube of S. flat | 
is also a secretion of the plants, for Dr. Gray and Mr. tam i 
found that “it distils in drops from the inner surface of the yours 
pitcher, before the orifice is open.” (Ibid, p. 149). The pe 
becomes afterward greatly increased by the rain which falls wit 
out difficulty into it. Se 
There is, in a third species, this same sort of a secretion, 
apparently the same stupefying effects, This is the 3%% 
drummondii; it has upright leaves which sometimes grow 
three feet in length, and they are peculiarly mottled with a 
spots. The hood has much larger and more conspicuous 
than in the former species, and it is on this hood that ther 
tion is formed. Dr. Chapman, in writing to Mr. Canby, ™ 
“On the inside of the hood, above its junction with th 
there is a very faintly sweetish secretion scarcely Pf 
ble to the taste, which is very attractive to insects; ® 
I do not detect any of this within the tube, I wonder 
it happens that so Many insects are entrapped, since 
could easily fly away from the open hood” (Am. Jor. 
p. 468). Here again the stupefying qualities of this se™ 
manifested, for it is after the insects have partaken of it that : 
are unable to fly away, and so fall into the trap. 
