INSECT-EATING PLANTS. 



130 



abundance, so that nothing sour or stagnant remains about their 

 roots. The soil should consist of equal parts of chopped sphag- 

 num moss and good brown fibrous peat, which has previously 

 had all the fine soil shaken out of it. The plants should be 

 grown in a warm stove ; the atmosphere should be kept very 

 moist, and the temperature never allowed to fall below about 

 65° at any time. Water should be given in much less quantity 

 during the winter months than in the summer, but even at this 

 season they will require to be kept well supplied. 



The Sarraceniacece include both the Californian plant known 

 as Darlingtonia calif omica and the Guinea plant called Heli- 

 amphora nutans. These both differ from Sarracenia proper in 

 the nature of their inflorescence as well as in the formation of 

 their hollow pitcher-shaped leaves. The curious Heliamjphora 

 nutans has quite recently been imported and sold by public 

 auction ; and this is the first time it has been introduced into 

 this country in a living state. It has pitchers with an oblique 

 mouth and a small lid, the inside having long pointed hairs 

 which are recurved, evidently constructed with a view to retain 

 any insect which enters the orifice. This plant, being a native 

 of Guinea, will require the heat of a stove-house. 



Darlingtonia calif omica (the " Cobra Plant ") is now well 

 established in English gardens, having been introduced from its 

 native habitat in California somewhere about thirty years or 

 more ago. It has a hooded pitcher, something like Sarracenia 

 variolaris, but twisted and turned downwards, and has hanging 

 from its mouth a pair of lance-shaped lobes, giving it the appear- 

 ance of a cobra snake — whence its name, " Cobra Plant." The 

 pitcher is furnished on the inside with recurved hairs, thus in- 

 suring the retention of any insect which may enter. It, like 

 the rest of these plants, grows in swampy places, and very often 

 in poor soil, so that its insect- catching proclivities stand it in 

 good stead. 



The Sarracenias, or " Side-saddle Flowers," are all very 

 beautiful plants, and are becoming more popular every year ; 

 and when they become still better known and understood, I feel 

 sure they will be great favourites in English gardens. Like all 

 other insectivorous plants, they inhabit heaths and bogs, where 

 water is always abundant ; but they grow more robust under 

 cultivation, making more roots and forming far better specimens 



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