The American Botanist 



VOL. XXI JOLIET, ILL., AUGUST, 1915 No. 3 



S ivander to the z/^~za^ cornered fence 

 Where sassafras entrenched in brambles dense. 

 Contests with stolid vehemence 

 TJhe march of culture, setting limb and thorn 

 J^s pikes against the armj/ of the corn. 



— Sidney Lanier. 



THE SPOTTED TRUMPET LEAF 



By Walter M, Buswell. \-.A'^f, . ; 



A S nearly all of our plants, both cultivated and wild, are 

 -^-^ eaten by some species of insects, their leaves or fruit 

 destroyed or often the whole plant killed, it seems no more than 

 right that insects should in turn be eaten by plants. This is 

 just what happens when some unfortunate insect chances to 

 walk into the parlor of the pitcher plant. The story of the 

 spider and the fly might well fit the case of this plant and its 

 insect visitors, for it is indeed one of "the prettiest little par- 

 lors that ever you did spy" and the insect that walks in never 

 returns. 



There are several different species of pitcher plant in the 

 United States but the spotted trumpet leaf {Sarracenia minor), 

 is the only species I found in the pine barrens of Central Flor- 

 ida. In many places the handsome slender trumpets and large 

 lemon-yellow flowers of this plant thickly studded the open 

 grassy places often several acres in extent. The leaves varied 



