/ 
Tas. 7093.. 
HELIAMPHORA wvtans. 
- Native of British Guiana. 
Nat. Ord. SARRACENIACE. 
Genus HELIAMPHORA, Benth. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 48.) 
H. nutans, Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xviii. p.’ 432, t. 29 (Ic. in Flore 
des Serres, iterat. t. 2246-7; F. im Thurn in Trans. Linn. Soc. Ser. 2, 
vol. ii. p. 263, 271. 
- The remarkable plant here figured, discovered exactly 
half a century ago, had up to within the last few years 
been seen in a living state’ by only two naturalists, the 
brothers Schomburgk. These energetic travellers, when 
on a journey to determine the boundary line between 
British Guiana, Brazil, and Venezuela in 1839, were the 
first to make known that extraordinary castellated moun- 
tain Roraima, which, rising perpendicularly from an 
elevated table-land, itself 6000 feet above the sea, was. 
supposed to be, as regards its summit, inaccessible. On — 
the marshy Savanna at the base of the mountain they — 
found a Pitcher plant, and recognizing its interest, Sir 
Robert made an excellent drawing of it, which, with dried 
specimens, he communicated to his friend Mr. Bentham for 
description and publication. The result is an admirable 
paper on Heliamphora nutans by the latter botanist, which 
appeared in the year following its discovery, in the Trans- 
actions of the Linnean Society. In his account of | 
Heliamphora, Bentham, recognizing its close affinity im 
the character of the fruit and foliage with the Sarracenias 
of North America, placed it in the same Order, pointing out 
at the same time great differences. Thus whilst Sarracenia 
has a double pentamerous périanth, single-flowered scapes, 
three-bracteolate flowers, a stigma almost unique for: 
size and construction, and large dilated lids that arch 
-. over the mouths of the pitchers, Heliamphora has a single 
four- to six-merous (sepaline) perianth, three- to five- — 
flowered scapes, unibracteate flowers, a stigma of. minute 
January Ist, 1890, 
