[Illustration: YELLOW PITCHER-PLANT]
Herbs with tubular leaves; flowers nodding; sepals 4-5; petals 5, or
absent; stamens numerous; style often umbrella-like; ovary 3-5-celled.
Yellow Pitcher-Plant. Trumpet-Leaf (_Sarracenia sledgei_) is also called
trumpets, water-cup, watches, and biscuits. The last two names are
suggestive of the broad, umbrella-shaped structure bearing the stigmas
and occupying the center of the flower. The other names refer to the
tubular, ribbed, trumpet-shaped leaves. The flowers are drooping at
maturity, with 5 fiddle-shaped yellow petals and 5 shorter yellow sepals
tinged with brown or red. It grows in swamps from East Texas to Alabama
and is quite similar to the eastern _Sarracenia flava_. April-May.
The pitcher-plant is a most efficient collector of insects. The upper
part of the leaf bends over, forming a lid whose inner surface is
covered with minute honey-glands attractive to insects. The upper part
of the tube is smooth, affording little foothold and causing the insect
to fall into and drown in the sticky fluid given off in the lower part
of the tube. Downwardly directed hairs prevent his escape. After a time
his body is dissolved and absorbed by the plant. An overdose of animal
food causes the browning and decay of the leaves.