Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/564

 548 PITCHER PLANTS the hood or lamina, and is regarded as the lid of the pitcher, though it never closes it, but in some species bends over the opening and more or less covers it. The pitchers have their inner surface clothed with stiff hairs pointing down- ward, and in one species at least there is near the orifice of the tube a sweetish exudation. The tubular leaves or pitchers are found par- tially filled with water containing numerous dead and more or less decomposed insects. From the centre of the cluster of leaves the naked flower stalks are produced, each of which bears a large, solitary, nodding flower ; the calyx, with three bractlets at its base, has five persistent, thick, colored sepals; the five ob- long petals are incurved over the pistil and deciduous ; the globose five-celled ovary has a short style surmounted by a broad umbrella- shaped expansion, which is petal-like and five- angled, and has five delicate rays starting from the centre, and terminating under the angles on the margins in as many minute hooked stigmas; the numerous stamens are inserted below the ovary and covered by the umbrella- like expansion of the pistil. The northern species, S. purpurea, is quite common in peat bogs within its limits, and is popularly known as pitcher plant, huntsman's cup, and side- saddle flower, the last name being of obscure application, though the flower is shaped some- what like a pillion. The leaves, 4 to 6 in. long are curved upward, have a broad wing and a short, erect, open hood ; they are often veined with purple and tinged with that color; the flower, on a stalk a foot high, is deep purple : a rare variety has yellowish green flowers and leaves without purple veins. A few years ago the root of this was much lauded as a remedy for smallpox, and wonderful cures by it were reported in England; careful trials in this country have shown it to be quite valueless. The parrot-beaked pitcher plant (8. psittaci- na) is the smallest species ; its leaves, only 2 to 4 in. long, marked with white spots and purple veins, are spreading, with the hood in- flated, beaked, and so bent over as to cover and protect the orifice of the tube ; the flower stalk is a foot high, the flower purple; this is confined to the pine-barren swamps of Geor- gia and Florida. The red-flowered trumpet- leaf (S. rubra) is found in the sandy swamps of North Carolina and Georgia; its trumpet- shaped leaves, 10 to 18 in. long, are erect, paler above and marked with purple veins ; the hood is erect, ovate, with a point or beak at the top and hairy on the inside ; the flow- er stalks, taller than the leaves, have reddish purple flowers. Drummond's pitcher plant (S. Drummondii) occurs in the swamps of Florida and middle Georgia ; its erect trumpet-shaped leaves are 2 ft. long, and are the showiest of all, as the upper part of the tube and the erect hood are white, handsomely marked and net- ted with purple veins ; the flowers, 3 in. across, are purple. The spotted pitcher plant (S. va- riolaris), found from North Carolina to Flori- da, has its erect leaves 6 to 12 in. long, the ovate hood concave and arching over the opening in the tube, which is yellowish near the top and spotted with white; the flowers, about 2 in. broad, are yellow and on stems shorter than the leaves. The largest species is the yellow pitcher plant (S. ftava), called trumpet-leaf, trumpets, and watches ; the erect leaves have a wide mouth, and an erect round- ed hood, which is narrowed at the base and yellow ; they are 2 to 3 ft. long and of a light yellowish green color ; the flower stalks, about as long as the leaves, have yellow unpleasant- ly scented flowers 4 or 5 in. across, the petals becoming long and drooping; this species is found from Virginia to Florida, often occur- ring in large tracts. Sarracenias are much cultivated by collectors of interesting plants ; the common species (S. purpurea), set in a vase or bowl of peat moss and properly supplied with water, makes a pleasing window plant, but the others require greenhouse treatment ; they grow best in a mixture of sphagnum moss and peat, and require an abundance of water while growing, and but little while at rest. On the Pacific coast the Sarraceniacew are represented by a most interesting genus, Darlingtonia, of which but one species, D. Californica, is known. Its chief botanical difference from Sarracenia is in its five-lobed California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia). style; the shape of the leaves is very unlike any in that genus; when full grown, they are from 12 to 18 in. long, tubular and dilated up- ward, with a broad wing, and singularly twist- ed about half a turn ; the summit of the tube is vaulted and curved over like a hood, beneath which is a small orifice ; the blade of the leaf is represented by an appendage at the end of the tube, of two diverging lanceolate lobes and shaped somewhat like a fish's tail ; the upper