194 INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. [Jan. 



and more voracious J^^epenthcs urns. Under the microscope, the minute 

 structure of a Nepenthes pitcher is both beautiful and interesting. 

 In the interior of the pitcher there are three principal surfaces, viz. 

 an attractive, a conductive, and a secretive or digestive surface. The 

 attractive surface is on the imder side of the lid of the pitcher, and 

 also on the rim. The under side of the lid is provided with an 

 abundance of houey-secreting glands. This is the bait, which is 

 cunningly provided, so that the victim may be led pleasantly on its 

 way to destruction. It is found in all the species but one, viz. 

 Nepenthes ampullaria. Sir Joseph Hooker, in his presidential 

 address " On Carnivorous Plants " to the British Association at 

 Belfast in 1874, points out very clearly the reason why this species 

 is thus exceptional. Unlike the others, its lid is thrown horizontally 

 back, and therefore honey secretion on a lid so placed would tend 

 to lure insects away from the pitcher instead of into it. 



The glands consist of masses of cells, each embedded in a cavity 

 of the tissue of the lid, and encircled by a guard-ring of glass-like 

 cellular tissue. The conducting surface e.N;tends frora the mouth of 

 the pitcher down to a variable distance ; it is formed of a fine net- 

 work of cells, covered with a glass-like cuticle, which affords no 

 foothold to insects. The remainder of the pitcher is entirely secretive, 

 and consists of a cellular floor crowded with circular glands in very 

 large numbers. Each gland is like the honey-gland of the lid, and 

 is contained in a pocket of the same nature, but semicircular, with 

 the mouth downwards, so that the secreted fluid all falls to the 

 bottom of the pitcher. The secreting glands are so numerous that 

 Hooker counted 3000 to a square inch in Nepenthes Eafflesiatui. 

 These secrete an acid fluid, whicli is present in considerable quantity 

 before the lid of the pitcher is opened. Animal matter put into the 

 pitchers, such as small pieces of meat or white of egg, becomes acted 

 upon in a short time. Not long since I had occasion to cut off a 

 pitcher of JNejxnthes Eafflesianet, which contained over twenty large 

 cockroaches. Cephalotus foUicidca'is, one of the prettiest and most 

 interesting of plants, is worthy of notice. It has been called the 

 Australian pitcher-plant, and affords a good illustration of the con- 

 fusion which now and again arises by the exclusive use of English 

 plant-names. There is one species of Nepenthes, a native of Australia, 

 viz. Nepenthes Kcnnedyanu, — this plant, and not Cephalotus, which 

 belongs to the Saxifrage family, has therefore the best right to the 

 name of the Australian pitcher-plant. By using the scientific name, 

 no confusion can possibly occur. This plant, then, unlike Nepenthes, 

 attains only a few inches in height, has two distinct forms of leaves, 

 one flat, like an ordinary leaf, the other having pitcher leaves. No 

 doubt it also, in a natural state, captures and digests insects. 



