634 PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
By far the most beautiful and gracefully shaped pitchers are 
those belonging to the genus Nepenthes which is represented by 
about 68 species that are mainly indigenous to the East Indies 
with headquarters in North Borneo and with Mount Kina Balu 
as a center. Many of the plants are continuously exposed to a 
moist dripping atmosphere. 
Fic. 479.—Nepenthes Rajah. (From St. John’s “Life in the Foresta of the Far East.’’) 
Each of the modified, pitchered leaves shows a petiole (usu- 
ally winged) which widens into an expanded blade, the midrib of 
which is continued as an elongated tendril which expands into a 
terminal winged pitcher. The pitchers show a large variety of 
shapes and color designs depending upon the species. Fre- 
quently they are tubular, goblet or cornucopia shaped. Each 
pitcher has a hinged lid which varies from small elliptic to large 
heart- or kidney-shaped. The tendril is sensitive to contact 
stimuli and often winds about a limb of a tree. The pitchers, 
partly filled with a viscid watery secretion, either hang suspended 
in the air from the tendril or rest on the ground. 
