PITCHER PLANT. 
75 
enter the pitcher, possibly for shelter, but are unable to effect a 
return, owing to the reflexed bristly hairs that line the upper part 
of the tube and lip, and thus find a watery grave in the moisture 
that fills the hollow below. 
The tall stately flower of the Pitcher Plant is not less worthy 
of our attention than the curiously formed leaves. The smooth 
round simple scape rises from the centre ot the plant to the height 
of 18' 2°. The flower is single and terminal, composed of 5 sepals, 
with three little bracts ; 5 blunt broad petals of a dull purplish-red 
colour, sometimes red and light-yellowish green; and in one variety 
the petals are mostly of a pale-green hue, and there is an absence 
of the crimson veins in the leafage. The petals are incurved or 
bent downwards towards the centre. The stamens are numerous. 
The ovary is 5-celled, and the style is expanded at the summit into 
a 5 angled, 5 rayed umbrella-like hood, which conceals beneath it 
5 delicate rays, each terminating in a little hooked stigma. The 
capsule or seed vessel is 5-celled and 5-valved; seeds numerous. 
I have been more minute in the description of this interesting 
plant, because much of its peculiar organziation is hidden from the 
eye, and cannot be recognized in a drawing, unless a strictly 
botanical one, with all its interior parts dissected, and because the 
Pitcher Plant has lately attracted much attention by its reputed 
medicinal qualities in cases of small-pox, that loathsome scourge ot 
the human race. A decoction from the root of this plant has been 
said to lessen all the more violent symptoms of the disorder. If 
this be really so, its use and application should be widely spread; 
fortunately, the remedy would be in the power of every one; like 
many of our sanative herbs it is to be found without difficulty, and 
