THE 



GARDENER, 



APRIL 1873. 



THE CULTURE OF PITCHER- PLAIJ-TS. 



(nepenthes.) 



HEEE are few plants which interest ordinary observers 

 more than these, when well grown ; and like Orchids 

 among flowering plants, they, when bearing well-developed 

 pitchers, give a superior tone to the collection of foliage 

 plants with which they may be associated. 



Some of the new or rare kinds are rather expensive, but small plants 

 of many good kinds may be obtained at a moderate price, and will 

 not fail to interest both cultivators and visitors. There has been a 

 good deal of misunderstanding with regard to the foliaceous organs of 

 Nepenthes and their remarkable pitcher-like terminations ; but it is 

 now generally acknowledged that the ascidia or pitchers are merely 

 appendages developed from a gland which terminates the prolonged 

 imdrile of the true leaves, and not a modification of the petioles with 

 the true leaf for the lid, as was formerly supposed. The flowers are 

 borne on erect spikes, and are generally of a chocolate colour, not very 

 showy. The male and female flowers are borne on separate spikes ; 

 and as it rarely happens that male and female flowers are produced at 

 the same time, unless it be in large collections, it follows that they are 

 not so frequently hybridised as they otherwise would be. This is a 

 difiiculty often experienced by the hybridiser, not only in this but in 

 many other classes of plants bearing dioecious flowers ; but many kinds 

 of pollen will retain its fertilising power for months after the flowers 

 are produced, if it be carefully collected when matured and wrapped 

 up in tinfoil. I have frequently preserved pollen for a long time 



