TRUMPETLEAF 



Sarracenia flava Linnaeus 



Anyone who has traveled through the South in spring and has been 

 delighted by the fresh verdure of ferns and trees, cannot fail to have 

 been attracted by the great numbers of these curious plants, w^hich can 

 be observed from the car windows. The trumpetleaf is the largest 

 representative of the Pitcherplant Family, the yellow flowers measur- 

 ing as much as five inches in diameter, and the yellowish-green tubular 

 leaves, frequently veined with red on the pointed lid, growing two to 

 three feet high. The inside of the leaves near the top has a very smooth 

 and slippery waxed surface, so that flies and other insects that are at- 

 tracted by an exudation just above the waxed surface, lose their hold 

 and slide to their death in the digestive liquid which the pitchers 

 contain. All the members of this family have arrangements for utiliz- 

 ing the dead insects to their own advantage. 



The trumpetleaf grows in damp acid sofls, from northern Florida 

 to the southernmost counties of Virginia. 



The specimen sketched was brought into flower by Dr. F. V. Coville 

 in a greenhouse of the Department of Agriculture in Washington. 

 These plants are easy to cultivate if placed in a pot filled with acid soil 

 made from a mixture of peat and sand, and this put into another pot 

 of two inches greater diameter, the space between being filled with 

 sphagnum moss. They should be kept in a cool greenhouse. 



PLATE 15 



