MARCH. 77 



NEPENTHES RAFFLESIANA. 



There is not a more interesting object in the vegetable kingdom, or 

 one that attracts more general admiration, than this wonderful plant. 

 It is almost universally known amongst gardeners and lovers of hor- 

 ticulture by fame, if not otherwise ; but many erroneous notions are 

 entertained respecting its structure, &c. The accompanying plate 

 gives, on a very much reduced scale, a fac-simile of a male species, 

 which we noticed as being in bloom in November last. Its absolute 

 height then was 16 feet, branching out al)out 3 feet; length of the 

 pitchers 11 inches, circumference of them 7 inches, and the flower- 

 spike about 13 inches in height. 



In consequence of the genus having male and female organs on 

 different plants, they are referred in the Linnsean arrangement to 

 the class Dioecia. It is a half-shrubby caulescent evergreen climb- 

 ing-plant, supporting itself in its native habitats on neighbouring 

 trees, against rocks, or amongst herbage. It is the largest of the 

 genus, far surpassing any hitherto known in Europe, and is adorned 

 with two kinds of pitchers or urns, both elegant in their form and 

 brilliant in their colouring ; they have an elongated mouth, with a 

 curiously striated margin, the strise terminating internally in teeth, 

 which give a beautiful pectinated appearance to the inner edge ; on 

 the apex of the urn is an ovate incumbent membranous operculum 

 or lid, marked with two principal longitudinal nerves, and cuspidate 

 at its base on the back part ; this lid folds over similar to a hinge, 

 but has no articulation. The leaves of this plant have dilated folia- 

 ceous petioles, on the ends of which are produced the urns, assum- 

 ing a pendulous position; the lower ones have their cirrhus, or tendril, 

 not twisted, but coming direct from the stem to the urn ; the tendril 

 of the upper leaves has one or two spiral curves about the middle, 

 and terminating in long ascending funnel-shaped urns ; the inverted 

 margins of both forms of urns are beautifully and delicately striated 

 and variegated with parallel stripes of a pur])le, crimson, and yellow 

 colour, and the body of the urn is spotted with brown. The urns 

 produced on the lower leaves are furnished externally with two 

 membranous wings, fimbriated at the margin, which give them a very 

 peculiar appearance ; the upper ones are long, somewhat trumpet- 

 shaped, without wings, and of a totally different character, often ten 

 inches long, and capable of holding a pint of water. 



The genus Nepenthes was established by Linnaeus, of which 

 only one species was then known, N. distillatoria, or the Chinese 

 distilling plant, — an admirably characteristic appellation, for in the 

 interior of the unopened pitcher, before any external process can 

 occur, there is a fluid which often fills the urn to the extent of one- 

 third, and which was found by Dr. Turner "to emit, while boiling, an 

 odour like baked apples, from containing a trace of vegetable matter, 

 and to yield minute crystals of superoxalate of potash on being 

 slowly evaporated to dryness." The fluid contained in the unopened 



