CALIFORNIA PITCHERPLANT 



Chrysamphora calif ornka (Torrey) Greene 



Although California pitcherplant is often called Darlingtoniaj that 

 name is not acceptable under the standard rules of botanical nomen- 

 clature, since it had previously been used for an entirely different 

 plant. The name suggested by Greene to replace it, Chrysamphora, 

 comes from the Greek words for "golden pitcher." The genus, which 

 comprises but a single species, was discovered in 1 842., near Mount 

 Shasta, California, by members of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. 



Nectar is secreted on the concave upper surface of the fishtail- 

 shaped appendage of the pitcherleaf, and insects alight there to feed 

 upon it. Following along the curving channel, they unwittingly 

 enter the orifice and fall to the bottom of the hollow. Their contact 

 with the walls stimulates the secretion of water, in which they are 

 drowned. So far as known, this pitcherplant produces no digestive 

 ferment but obtains its nourishment from the materials liberated by 

 bacterial decomposition of the dead insects. 



The plant sketched came from the mountains of northern Cali- 

 fornia, where the species is locally abundant. 



PLATE I 



