NORTHERN BUTTERWORT 
Pinguicula vulgaris Linnaeus 
The bright purple flowers of the northern butterwort suggest 
violets to the casual observer, but on closer examination the plant 
ptoves to be very different in its structural details. Its flowers are borne 
well above the yellow-green waxy leaves, which are greasy to the 
touch, and form a rosette at the base of the slender flower stems. Like 
rennet, the leaves of northern butterwort will cause milk to coagu- 
late. The plant always grows in a wet situation, usually in alkaline 
soil, in swampy places, on wet, gravelly flats, or by the edges of 
streams. Butterwort belongs to a small group of insectivorous plants, 
telated to the figworts, and with the bladderwotts constitutes a special 
family. 
Northern butterwort has a wide range, from Vermont-northward 
to Greenland, and west to California and Alaska. It occurs also in 
Europe and Asia. Related species grow in the peat bogs of the south- 
eastern United States. 
The specimen sketched was found in the Bow River Valley, six- 
teen miles west of Banff, Alberta, Canada, at an altitude of 4,000 feet. 
PLATE 198 
