40 WEST AUSTRALIAN PITCHER-PLANT, 



Dr. W. Woolls (5) says: — "In the pitcher-plant of Western 

 Australia some of the leaves are converted into ovoid, or nearly 

 globular pitchers, which have a lid attached to them. This lid 

 is very irritable under certain conditions." I do not know what 

 authority Dr. Woolls had for this statement, but as a matter of 

 fact the lid is not irritable. In the very young state, the lid 

 closes tightly over the orifice, and as it gets older, gradually 

 opens, being most widely opened in mature pitchers, but there is 

 no hinge, and it is only by using force sufficient to rupture the 

 tissues of the attachment that it can be opened or closed more 

 than in its natural state. Probably the mistake arose from 

 seeing the lids in all degrees of openness in pitchers of various 

 ages. Goebel, quoted by Strasburger (6), says the lid does not 

 shut. 



All round the orifice of the pitcher, from the base of the lid, 

 there is a corrugated roll, the diameter being small near the lid, 

 and thickest in the middle of the front aspect. The corrugations 

 are produced internally in downward hooked teeth, 20 to 24 in 

 number usually. The colour of the rim is red-brown to dark 

 purplish-brown in mature specimens, and the surface is glossy. 

 The texture is tough. 



The pitchers have three projections or wings externally; one 

 in front, beginning just under the corrugated rim, at the centre 

 (tig. 4 a), narrow at first, and widening downwards towards the 

 toe of the pitcher, when it suddenly narrows to a point. The 

 wing consists of a narrow rib standing up at right angles to the 

 pitcher surface, and on the upper edge spreading out into lateral 

 free margins, so that a transverse section of it is like a broad- 

 angled Y. These lateral expansions are thickl}^ margined with 

 the stiff, pointed hairs already mentioned, and these are found 

 between the expansions in young pitchers, but are absent in 

 mature ones, although the papillse from which they rose can be 

 seen with a hand lens. The other wings are lateral, beginning 

 under the rim more than half-way back from the centre and 

 running obliquely forwards and downwards (fig. 4 6), and 

 terminate rather more than half-wa}' down the pitcher, w^here 



