i873-] CULTURE OF PITCHER-PLANTS. 151 



Fine specimens of different species of ^N'epenthes are grown at Chats- 

 worth, trained up the front of the Amherstia house. These are but 

 moderately shaded, and bear fine highly-coloured pitchers in abund- 

 ance. During a visit I paid to that princely establishment two years 

 ago, I found Mr Speed had dozens of cuttings that had been struck in 

 the spar and gravel with which the side benches of that interesting 

 house, devoted mainly to the Amherstia nobilis, are covered. In one 

 of the Orchid-houses was one of the finest-grown specimens of N. 

 Hookerii ever seen, a perfect picture of luxuriant health and sturdy 

 vigour. This plant was as elegant as a well-grown Dracoena Cooperii, 

 and its fresh- green leaves were each terminated by a large heavily- 

 blotched pitcher, reminding one of some strangely fantastic tropical fruit. 



Several interesting hybrid Nepenthes have been raised from seed by 

 Messrs James Veitch & Sons of Chelsea, who possess one of the most 

 magnificent collections of these plants to be found in this country; and 

 it is a rich treat to walk through their Nepenthes house and inspect 

 the fantastic urn-like appendages that droop in such rich profusion 

 both overhead and on all sides. The seeds of Nepenthes remind one 

 of dry old larch-leaves in shape and colour, and are produced in im- 

 mense quantities in the jungles of Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands 

 of the Indian Archipelago, where these plants mostly luxuriate in the 

 jungles, forming in some places a dense thicket or mass of under- 

 growth. Several very remarkable species, which have been fully de- 

 scribed and beautifully illustrated by Dr J. D. Hooker, C.B., from 

 dried specimens preserved at Kew, still remain to be introduced to our 

 collections by some enthusiastic and enterprising traveller in Borneo. 

 These include N. Piajah, N. Edwardsiana, and N. Lowii, the former 

 bearing pitchers quite a foot long, and fully six inches in diameter. 

 This species is spoken of by travellers as bearing pitchers capable of 

 holding several pints of water. 



Another interesting feature connected with Nepenthes, and indeed 

 v/ith both American [Sarracenia) and Californian [DarJlngtonia) 

 pitcher-plants, is the propensity for attracting flies into the urn-like 

 appendages, from which they rarely escape. If old dead pitchers are 

 examined either at home or abroad, they are generally found to con- 

 tain dead flies, and occasionally other insects. Some writers affirm 

 that the flies are dissolved in the glutinous liquid distilled by the 

 pitchers when young, and that they are thus absorbed and enter into 

 the economy of the plant ; but this requires further investigation, since 

 no distinct facts have been noted to prove this assertion. The slightly 

 glutinous water contained in the younger pitchers is perfectly whole- 

 some previous to its becoming polluted by the insects, which invariably 

 accumulate and putrefy therein soon after the lid of the pitcher opens. 



