PITCHERPLANT 



Sarracenia -purpurea Linnaeus 



The pitcherpknt is found in peat bogs, where the acid soil provides 

 ideal conditions for its successful growth. The pitcher-shaped leaves 

 grow from a central crown, and are partially filled with water and a 

 digestive substance. The inner surfaces of the leaves are lined with 

 bristles which project downward, and these prevent many small insects 

 that slide into the water from escaping. Thus they are trapped, drowned, 

 and digested. These dead insects are also used as food by the larvae of 

 several species of sarcophagous flies, which are instrumental in the 

 cross-pollination of the flower,and are always found where the pitcher- 

 plant grows. 



The flowers are borne on a stem from six inches to two feet tall, 

 a vigorous plant often yielding seven or eight blossoms. 



A cool greenhouse is necessary for successful indoor cultivation. It 

 is well to place the plant in a flower pot filled with acid soil made from 

 a mixture of peat and sand, and to set this pot inside another of two 

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

 sphagnum moss, which should be kept moist. 



The pitcherpknt is one of the plants that was pushed southward by 

 the ice cap during glacial times. Since the great ice sheet retreated it has 

 been gradually moving northward, and now ranges from Florida to 

 Kentucky and Iowa, and north to Labrador and Manitoba. 



The specimen sketched was collected in eastern Maryland. 



PLATE 52. 



