1877. ] 
THE SABRACENIAS, OR SIDE-SADDLE FLOWERS. 
255 
way. In tins, the pitchers are erect, with a large lid, and they are broadly 
winged. 
Another very fine set of these plants were, as we learn from the Irish Fanner^s 
Gazette^ blooming in the month of May last in the Victoria house at Glasnevin. 
On a shelf were to be seen standing in single file, and all or nearly all in flower, 
some three dozen or more healthy specimens of these singular plants, comprising 
all the species in cultivation, as well as beautiful examples of a more interesting 
hybrid, raised a few years ago between S. Jlava and S. Drummondii by Dr. Moore. 
Here were several specimens of the longest known and most familiar of any, 
Sarracenia purpurea^ with its much inflated pitchers and dark purplish flowers, 
about the largest and most showy of any, and amongst the plants of which con¬ 
siderable variety might be noticed. Then came several examples of S.Jlava^ with 
its tall pale greenish yellow flowers, and erect leaves, like long narrow funnels, 
showing a striking contrast, both in leaf and flower, with those of the preceding. 
There were also grand examples of Dr. Moore’s hybrid, S. Moorei^ which, by reason 
of its stately habit, was perhaps the most interesting of the series. In this, 
the rich purple of the flowers of the male parent, S. Drummondii^ are toned 
down by the infusion of the pale blood of the female parent, S. flava^ those 
of the offspring being pale rose. A characteristic peculiar to S. Drummondii^ and 
by which it may be always distinguished when in flower, is its towering scape, 
lifting the flowers high above the pitchers; in the cross they are modest, and 
like those of S. jlava^ rise little more than midway the height of the pitchers. 
As regards the latter, in height, appearance, and the beautiful painted reticula¬ 
tions of the lid, they are the counterpart of the parental S. Drummondii, of which 
a series of specimens succeed to those of its offspring, all, too, in flower. Then 
came examples of S. ruhra^ S. variolaris^ and though last, far from being the 
least interesting, S. psittacina^ with its singular amphorae, not standing up like 
those of the others, but radiating from the crown with perfect regularity, like the 
spokes of a wheel, and resting on the surface of the earth; this plant had three 
flower-scapes in process of development. 
“ It would, we apprehend,” remarks our contemporary, be difficult to meet with 
elsewhere a series of these singular productions so extensive and varied, presenting 
a picture of plant-life which, in its floral and physiological aspects, is so singularly 
interesting. It must not be inferred from the mention of the Victoria house 
that they are grown at Glasnevin in a high temperature. No such thing. From 
the time the Victoria regia dies down in autumn there is no fire-heat whatever, 
or but very little, applied to this house till about the middle of May, when the 
giant water lily again enters upon its marvellous development.” 
We add the following remarks by Mr. Baines on the cultivation of these 
plants {Gard. Citron.^ N.s., v. 358), and trust they may lead to a much more 
general cultivation of so interesting a group of plants:— 
“ The condition Sarracenias are generally seen in fully demonstrates the 
