Chapter IV — 55 — Nepenthes 



three feet. It consists of an expanded base, sometimes connate about 

 the supporting stem, and expands above into an elongate blade cor- 

 responding morphologically to the narrowed portion of the seedHng 

 leaf. At the apex it may sometimes be found to be peltate {N. clip- 

 eata), and this, as above said, is compared by Macfarlane to the 

 peltation observed by him of the two ventral ridges just below the 

 mouth of the pitcher. Beyond this there occurs a tendril which is 

 short and non-functional as such in soil rosettes {e.g. N. ampullaria), 

 but which in the climbing forms becomes long, stout and twining. 

 Sachs (1896, through Goebel) held that the tendril activity (the 

 actual winding) acts as a stimulant to the growth of the pitcher, but 

 the evidence is not convincing, for it is quite usual to find well de- 

 veloped pitchers when no winding has intervened (4 — 7, 8). Though 

 the tendrils wind about supports, they may wind even when supports 

 are not available; but it is not true, as Oudemans thought, that this 

 winding is a means of bringing the pitchers into the proper position. 

 The sensitive tissues which are responsible for this occur at the base 

 of the pitcher and neighboring portion of the tendril (Stern). 



The Pitcher. — It is with the structure and behavior of the mature 

 pitcher that we are chiefly concerned. It shows a considerable variety 

 of form, from that of a cylinder (7\^. phyllamphora, N. gracilis), a 

 cylinder modified by a basal globular expansion {N. ventricosa, N. 

 Lowii), an open funnel, narrowest at the base {N. inermis, N. dubia), 

 to an oval sac slightly compressed laterally (N. ampullaria). All of 

 these forms have been illustrated by Danser (1928). In most species, 

 and this is especially noticeable in the approximately cylindrical ones, 

 the upper one-third, more or less, is somewhat constricted, correspond- 

 ing in extent to the waxy zone within (to be described beyond). From 

 some species this is absent {N. ventricosa, N. bicalcarata, N. ampul- 

 laria) or may be very narrow {N. intermedia). It is said to be ex- 

 ceptionally present in forms from which it is normally absent. The 

 size of the pitcher may reach in some species the length of a foot, 

 with a capacity great enough to accomodate small mammals, birds, 

 etc., e.g. N. rajah 25-30 cm. by 12 cm. (Hooker). The majority of 

 species have pitchers which range from 5 to 15 cm. in length. 



The pitchers produced even in a single individual, this being a 

 character of the species, may be of two or even three different forms, 

 that is, they may be mono-, di-, or tri-morphic (Macfarlane). When 

 this occurs, the rosette leaves in contact with the soil differ from the 

 cauline, the uppermost of these being again different from those mid- 

 way of the plant. Thus N. ampullaria has rosette leaves with goblet 

 shaped pitchers, the cauHne ones being cylindrical; while in N. Bosch- 

 iana, N. maxima and A^. Vieillardii, the lowermost pitchers are globose, 

 the lower cauline tubular and the uppermost infundibuHform or cornu- 

 copioid. So different are they that different pieces of the same species 

 have been described as different species. In some cases the internal 

 structure differs, there being a wax zone in some pitchers and not in 

 others. In color the pitchers are usually green with more or less 

 splotchings of red, and when this occurs in the rim the color lies in 

 very definitely regular transverse stripes, obviously connected with the 

 regular, straight-rowed arrangement of the cells. Some species have, 



