144 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND C0T1AQE GARBLEER. 
[ August 18, 1885. 
sometimes from £50 to £150 for rare species from the West Indies and 
South America. We have Dandrobiutn speciosum and Calanthe veratri- 
folia in the adjacent mountains, but most of the species, excepting some 
in Queensland and North Australia, are small. The whole number of 
species now described for Australia are 500. The plant named after me 
is Prasophyllum Woollsii, a small species found by me several years ago. 
“ My friend Mr. Fi'zgerald is publishing a work on Australian Orchids 
with beautiful illustrations ; the Government assisting in the printing.”— 
NOTES ON ROSES. 
I have read with much interest Mr. Muir’s “ Notes ” (p. 105), and am 
induced to make some remarks on them. I am not able altogether to 
agree with him, and someone else may remark the same in my own case. 
In my experience 1885 is not a first-class Rose year. In this valley of 
the Mole the May and even June frosts were constant'. I never remem¬ 
ber so many damaged blooms ; in fact, it was the exception for the first 
buds to come true. With regard to the Crystal Palace Show, it is true 
it is a 7s. 6d. day, but the smallest exhibitor finds entrance as a matter of 
course, and breakfast tickets are given with the utmost liberality. In 
respect of Her Majesty, I fear we are not likely to see her in the boxes at 
present. My own impression is that this is one of the Roms that will 
bear starving, and will probably look better when half the size of some 
of those that have been exhibited. Itisany way amost grand Ross,and Mr. 
Bennett may be congratulated at having now at any rate compelled 
admiration and acceptance of his Pedigree Roses. His Mrs. John Laing 
is also grand in substance, but of that’light pink colour which does not 
blend well with others. 
I fear I must also disagree about Merveille de Lyon, There were 
many in the class in which I was judging at the N.R.S., but there as 
elsewhere I hardly saw one where the eye was not apparent. It seems 
the habit of this Rose beyond all others to show this. Otherwise, as Mr. 
Muir says, in size and purity it is all that can be wished. The real white 
A. K. Williams has yet to be found. Tbis was not perhaps an A. K. W. 
year, though many grand blooms are recorded as shown. This is one of 
the very best Roses for standing that I know. This certainly was an 
Ulrich Brunner year, and he will have forced his way into many fresh 
orders. Lady M. Fitzwilliam is not classed with the Teas ; indeed, atone 
great show it took the silver modal as the best amongst the not-Teas. I 
think most will agree with Mr. Muir in his closing sentence, that practical 
notes on the Rose subject are valued and read with interest by Rose 
growers old and young.—A. C. 
THE PITCHER PLANT. 
T The variety of the Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia variolaris) found in 
North America is carnivorous, being a feeder on various animal 
substances. 
Mrs. Mary Treat, an American naturalist, made, a few years ago, 
several experiments upon the plants of this species to be found in 
Flor.da ; and to the labours of this lady the writer has been indebted, 
in some measure, in the preparation of this paper. 
The Sarracenia derives its name of “ Pitcher Plant ” from the fact of 
its possessing the following curious characteristics. The median nerve is 
prolonged beyond the leaves in the manner of a tendril, and terminates in 
a species of cup or urn. This cup is ordinarily 3 or 4 inches in depth, 
and 1 to 14 inch in width. The orifice of the cup is covered with a lid, 
which opens and shuts at certain periods. At Bunrise the cup is found 
filled with sweet, limpid water, at which time the lid is down. In the 
course of the day the lid opens, when nearly half the water is evaporated ; 
but during the night this loss is made up, and the next moraine the cup is 
again quite full, and the lid is shut. 
About the middle of March the plants put forth their leaves, which are 
from 6 to 12 inches long, hollow, and shaped something like a trumpet, 
whilst the aperture at the apex is formed almost precisely in the same 
manner as those of the plants previously described. A broad wing extends 
along one side of the leaf, from the base to the opening at the top ; this 
vting is bound, or edged with a purple cord, which extends likewise around 
the cup. Tbis cord secretes a sweet fluid, and not only flying insects, but 
those also that crawl upon the ground, are attracted by it to the plants 
Ants, especially, are very fond of this fluid, so that a line of aphides, 
extending from the base to the summit of a leaf, may frequently be 
observed slowly advancing towards the orifice of the cup, down which 
they disappear, never to return. Flying insects of every kind are equally 
drawn to the plant; and directly they taste the fluid they act very 
curiously. After feeding upon the secretions for two or three minutes 
they become quite stupid, unsteady on their feet, and whilst trying to pass 
their legs over their wings to clear them, they fall down. 
It is of no use to liberate any of the smaller insects ; every'fly, removed 
from the leaf upon which it had been feeding, returned immediately it 
was at liberty to do so, and walked down the fatal cup as though drawn 
to it by a species of irresistible fascination. 
*. 9 , not a ' one that flies and other small insects are overpowered by 
the fluid which exudes from the cord in question. Even large insects 
succumb to it, although of course not so quickly. Mrs. Treat says :_“ A 
large cockroach was feeding on the secretion of a fresh leaf, which had 
caught but little or no prey. After feeding a short time the insect went 
down the tube so tight that I could not dislodge it, even when turning 
the leaf upside down and knocking it quite hard. It was late in the 
evening when I observed it enter ; the next morning I cut the tube open ; 
the cockroach was still alive, but it was covered with a secretion produced 
from the inner surface of the tube, and its legs fell off as I extricated it. 
From all appearance the terrible Sarracenia was eating its victim alive. 
And yet, perhaps, I should not say 1 terrible,’ for the plant seems to 
supply its victims with a Lethe-like draught before devouring them.” 
If only a few insects alight upon a leaf no unpleasant smell is per¬ 
ceptible during, or after, the process of digestion ; but if a large number 
of them be caught, which is commonly the case, a most offensive odour 
emanates from the cup, although the putrid matter does not appear to 
injure in any manner the inner surface of the tube, food, even in this 
condition, being readily absorbed, and going to nourish the plant. In 
fact, it would seem the Sarracenia, like some animals, can feed upon 
carrion and thrive upon it. 
In instances in which experiments have been made with fresh, raw 
beef or mutton, the meat has been covered in a few hours with the 
secretions of the leaves, and the blood extracted from it. There is, how¬ 
ever, one difference between the digesting powers of the leaves when 
exercised upon insects or upon meat. Even if the bodies of insects have 
become putrid, the plant, as has already been stated, has no difficulty in 
assimilating them; but as regards meat, it is only when it is perfectly 
sweet that the secretions of the leaves will act upon it. 
The Pitcher Plant undoubtedly derives its principal nourishment from 
the insects it eats. It, too—unlike most other carnivorous plants, which, 
when the quantity of food with which they have to deal is in excess of 
their powers of digestion, succumb to the effort and die—appears to find 
it easy to devour any number of insects, small or large, the operation 
being with it simply a question of time. Flies, beetles, or even cock¬ 
roaches, at the expiration of three or four days at most, disappear, nothing 
being left of them save their wings and other hard parts of their bodies. 
The Sarracenia is, indeed, not only the most voracious of all known 
species of carnivorous plants, but the least fastidious as to the nature of 
the food upon which it feeds.—W. C. M. (in Nature). 
CACTUSES AT HOME. 
In Utah, Echinocerus phceniceus, Eohinocactus Simpsonii, Mamil- 
laria vivipara, var. neo-mexicana, and Opunta missouriensis, stand out 
in their native places and do well with frost 22° below zero; but they 
grow upon well-drained gravelly hillsides, and are usually covered with 
snow from Christmas to the following May. So much for the iron-clad 
Cactus. Then there are Cereus Engelmanni, Eohinocactus Whippleii, 
Echinocactus Sileri, Eohinocactus cylindraceus, Opuntia rutila, Mamil- 
laria chlorantha, that grow with the Agave Utaheme on the sandstone 
ledges, in many instances with hardly sand enough to cover their roots, 
and there are two Cactuses that stand out exposed to the fierce heat of 
the summer sun where hardly a lizard is to be found, with the ther¬ 
mometer down to zero in the winter. 
In the Beaver Dam Mountains, west of St. George, growing in the 
sand on the limestone ledges with Yucca brevifolia are Echinocactus 
Johnsoni and E. Le Contei. In this locality there is but little snow, but 
the thermometer often falls within 10° of zero. 
The question has been asked of me very often lately as to when it 
rains and when it does not. Snows and rain commence about the 15th 
of December, and continue until about the let of May, when a period 
of drought sets in, lasting until about the 24th of July. This being a 
holiday it always rains, and it continues to rain until the last of August. 
At the higher altitudes where the first-named Cactus grow, frost usually 
follows a rain, let it be at what season of the year it may. Last night, 
June 11th, ice formed quarter inch thick, following a very unusual rain 
storm that came off last week. 
A few years since I had a number of Agave Utahense that I wanted 
to keep until I could get orders for them. I planted them with a Mamil- 
laria vivipara in a box of clay soil, and told the lady in charge of the 
place to water them occasionally. I was away for some two or three 
months. When I returned to get my Agave plants to send away I found 
them swimming in water, and was informed that they had been sitting on 
a back porch where they got the morning sun only with a pail of water 
from the well every morning. I expected that they were ruined, but to 
my surprise they were well supplied with new roots. I have, when 
collecting Cactus, set out on dry ground in favourable locations what 1 
had left over after filling orders ; but I have never had the good fortune to 
have any of them root as well as the M. vivipara set with the Agave noted. 
A number of the readers of the “Gardeners’ Monthly” have asked 
me to tell them about the soil that our Cactus grow in. Cereus Engel¬ 
manni arrives to its greatest perfection on the ragged edges of limestone 
ledges with a soil of clay and gravel. Echinocactus Johnsoni, E. 
LeContii, M. chlorantha and Opuntia rutila delight in a south-westerly 
exposure on the side of sandy and gravelly ridges with bed rock of lime¬ 
stone. Echinocactus cylindraceus, E. xeranthoides, E. Whipplei, Opun¬ 
tia chlorotica, M. phellosperma, are found on the west side of canons 
facing the morning sun, but never on the east side sand on sandstone 
ledges generally. Echinocactus Sileri on low hills, soil rotten gypsum. 
Echinocactus phceniceus, E. Simpsonii, Opuntia missouriensis, gravelly 
soil facing to south-west, or on top of high gravelly hdls about the rim 
of the great basin. Mamillarias vivipara and neo-mexicana gain their 
greatest perfection in very tight clay soils amongst Sage brush.—A. L. 
Siler, Kane Co., Utah (in American Gardeners' Monthly ). 
CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS. 
This is a commercial plant of considerable importance, and has been 
known to this country fer neirly a century. It is only cultiv&'ed in 
