Francis E. Lloyd 



78 — Carnivorous Plants 



also be absent from N. ventricosa. Since the spiders above named find 

 their food in insects attracted to the pitchers, they may be regarded 

 as commensal. The case is somewhat if not quite the same as that of 

 the spider-plant combination of Roridula (Lloyd, 1934)- 



The "aquatic fauna" nepenthexene forms include protozoa, myx- 

 ophyceae, desmids and diatoms, rotatoria, Oligochaetes, crustaceae 

 and also' larvae of various Diptera and a very occasional tadpole. 

 Such forms occur relatively infrequently, but are most abundant in 

 those pitchers of N. ampullaria which stand half buried in the sub- 

 stratum, as would be expected. The nepenthephile animals occur in 

 only very small numbers; only three known in fact. It is interesting 

 to know that of these one is represented by two races, one of which 

 lives in hollows of bamboos. The nepenthebionts include the remark- 

 able number of 26 species; of the Phoridae 6, Chironomidae i, and of 

 the Culicidae 19. All these are Diptera, 19 of which are mosquitos. 

 It is admitted that further research may reduce or enlarge this number 

 somewhat, but it can hardly alter the general weight of the evidence 

 that there is a strikingly large number of animals which habitually live 

 in the pitchers of Nepenthes and nowhere else. They feed on the ani- 

 mal detritus found there. To account for this large number of forms 

 adapted only to Nepenthes as commensals, Thienemann points out 

 that Danser refers the origin of the genus to a time earlier than 

 the beginning of the Tertiary, in the Chalk, but Danser thinks of the 

 genus as a young one. 



Folklore, uses. — It is inevitable that such an unusual and curious 

 plant as Nepenthes should figure in the folklore of the peoples in con- 

 tact with it. In this connection I quote an interesting passage from 

 RuMPHius {Herbarium Amboinense 5:123) containing notes made 

 about 1660 in the Far East. This was kindly translated for me by 

 Prof. Baas Becking, who indeed drew my attention to it. 



"Uses. This remarkable plant mostly serves as a curiosity, to keep its pitchers amongst other 

 strange objects which are worth keeping to show the nice playfulness of nature. To this end open 

 pitchers are preferred. They are emptied and wind-dried, filled with cotton or other fine material 

 in order that the natural form may be preserved. Or the dried pitchers are placed in a book and 

 pressed flat. However, to show the curiosity more completely, one should have the leaf still at- 

 tached. 



"The natives are unwilling to bring them to us from the mountains, because of an old super- 

 stition according to which if one cuts off the pitchers and pours out the water one will meet with a 

 heavy rain before reaching home. As this happened a few times when I had ordered them to fetch 

 me the largest species from the mountains of Mamalo, they were strengthened in their superstition, 

 notwithstanding the fact that I convinced them that it had rained on the two days previous to this 

 expedition. Others go to the mountains when the rain has not fallen for a long time, and empty 

 all pitchers which they can reach with a stupid zeal as they want to bring rain to the land in this 

 way; but the converted natives do not dare to perform such tricks, out of respect to our and to the 

 Mohammedan priests. 



"Now listen to the contrary effect. If children often wet the bed, the native goes to the moun- 

 tains and fetches a few of the filled and still unopened {sic) pitchers, the water of which he pours over 

 the head of the children and makes them drink of it, as they also do to adults who are unable to 

 keep their water. 



"As it seems, one or the other must be a lie or a great miracle, if one could by means of this 

 little pitcher draw the water from the heavens and also keep it in the children's bellies." 



At a guess, the virtue attributed by the natives to the open pitchers, 

 out of which water can be poured, and the unopened pitcher, lies fun- 

 damentally in the fact that the latter holds its water. The symboHsm 

 appears evident. 



