Sarraceniaceae
A very small natural order of curious, perennial herbs, inhabiting turfy, spongy bogs in America. Flowers solitary or few, large, racemose, nodding; sepals four or five, free, hypogynous, closely imbricated from the base, sub-petaloid, persistent; petals five, free, hypogynous, imbricated, deciduous, or (in Heliamphora) wanting; stamens numerous, hypogynous, free; filaments filform; anthers two-celled; scapes naked or few-bracted. Leaves all radical, with a tubular or amphora-shaped petiole (pitcher); blade (lid) small, rounded, usually lying on the orifice of the petiole. "Sarracenia rubra has been vaunted in Canada as a specific against small-pox, but has not proved such. The pitcher-shaped leaves are effective insect traps; a sugary secretion exudes at the mouth of the pitcher, and attracts the insects, which descend lower in the tube, where they meet with a belt of reflexed hairs, which facilitate their descent into a watery fluid that fills the bottom of the cavity, and at the same time prevents their egress" (Le Maout and Decaisne). The order embraces three genera--Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, and Sarracenia--and eight species.