1876.1 
■461 
AMERICAN AGKRICULTU.RIST. 
from abroad; fortunately the letter had not 
been mailed, and he was saved the mortifica¬ 
tion of finding that he had imported a plant 
which grow in abundance at his own gate. 
Many persons cannot see the beauty of our 
enable it to be recognized. Large clumps may 
be removed from their native localities to the 
garden, and flourish fairly, but better plants 
may be had by sub-dividing a clump, and set¬ 
ting out small bits of the massi these will 
proper. In Nepenthes we have a very different 
structure; the leaf, which is usually long, has 
a very strong mid-rib, and this is prolonged 
beyond the end of the leaf as a strong, cord¬ 
like appendage, several inches in length, and 
* Aclfe ‘14 , 
S/. mSXXmM ■>; i -/fj 
the tall smooth panic.—( 7hni««?i virgatum.) 
raffle’s pitcher plant .—(Nepenthes Bafflesiana.) 
native plants until it is pointed out to them by 
Europeans, but we will do our florist the jus¬ 
tice to say that the grass had already attracted 
his attention, and it was on account of its orna¬ 
mental character that he was desirous of know¬ 
ing its name. The genus Panicum includes the 
common Crab-grass, so troublesome as a weed, 
the coarse Barn-yard grass, the Old-witch grass, 
which in autumn rolls itself into great heaps in 
the fence corners, and several others, which 
are fax from attractive in appearance. The 
Tall Smooth Panic, Panicum virgatum, is not 
only the handsomest, but it is the tallest of our 
Northern species. It is found in Southern New 
England and New York, near the coast, and 
farther south, is frequent, especially in poor 
and sandy localities. It is a perennial, and 
forms large clumps three to five feet high, pre¬ 
senting a mass of lively green foliage, surmount¬ 
ed by the numerous flower-panicles. The 
flowers appear in August, the panicles at first 
being narrow, but as the seeds ripen, their 
branches spread, and give the whole plant a 
highly ornamental appearance, which continues 
until after hard frosts. In describing grasses, 
terms are used with which those who under¬ 
stand the structure of ordinary flowers, are not 
familiar, so instead of giving a technical de¬ 
scription, we present an engraving, which 
shows the general aspect of the grass, and will 
soon increase and form more vigorous plants 
than where large bunches are transplanted. 
This grass may be used with good effect in 
sub-tropical groups, and in contrast with 
the Arundos, and other tall-growing kinds. 
About Pitcher Plants. 
Those who attended the Exhibition of the 
New York Horticultural Society, held at the 
Hippodrome in September last, saw, among the 
many fine plants that were brought together, 
a collection of Pitcher-plants from Mr. George 
Such, South Amboy, N. J., that formed one of 
the chief attractions of the Exhibition. Our 
native Sarracenias are called pitcher-plants, 
but those to which we now refer are exotics, 
mostly from the East Indies, and belonging to 
the genus Nepenthes. The ancient nepenthe 
or nepenthes was some narcotic plant, and it 
is difficult to see why it should have been 
given to these pitcher-plants. In our native 
pitcher-plants, the pitcher is formed from the 
leaf stalk, which is very much expanded, and 
rolled up to form a kind of cornucopia, the 
edges being securely joined, to hold water, 
while the little appendage at the top, which 
might serve for a lid to the pitcher, is 'all that 
answers to the blade of the leaf, or the leaf 
sometimes coiled, and answering the purpose of 
a tendril. At the end of this is borne a pecu¬ 
liar organ, properly termed a pitcher, as it 
serves the office of a pitcher in containing 
water, and is furnished with a neatly fitting 
lid. The real nature of the pitcher has been 
the subject of much discussion, the most gener¬ 
ally accepted view being that it is the peculiar 
development of a gland at the end of the mid¬ 
rib. The pitchers vary in size and shape; in 
the oldest of these plants (_ZV. distillatoria) these 
are cylindrical, about 6 in. long, not more than 
an inch through, and green. In others, of 
which N. Bafflesiana, the one here figured, is an 
example, the pitchers are niucli broader in pro¬ 
portion and from 6 to 12 inches in length; they 
are furnished with xvings, and are beautifully 
spotted and marked with red on a dark-green 
ground; in this and others the edge of the 
mouth of the pitcher is rolled inward and 
marked with cross-lines; here the lid is suffi¬ 
ciently large to cover the mouth, but in some 
species it is. much smaller. In this, as in some 
others, the pitchers upon old plants are quite 
different in shape from those produced earlier, 
and are without wings; the upper pitcher in 
the engraving shows this peculiarity. N. 
Hookeriana is another choice species in Mr. 
Sucli’s collection, which indeed comprises about 
all that are worth cultivating, and when 
