IGO W. II. GILBUP.T 0\ THE 



To this description of the gland I would only desire to add that 

 the waUs of the surface cells are much thickened, and that beneath 

 them, forming part of the gland, is a more or less spherical basal 

 cell with a thin wall. Such, then, being their structure, it follows 

 tliat they cannot possibly possess the function ascribed to them 

 by Dr. Tait. 



Another form of gland is that which is to be found on the general 

 secreting surface of the pitcher, and is represented in Fig. 8. You 

 will observe that in section there are three cells, the ends of which 

 are slightly elevated above the general surface, and whose greatest 

 length is at right angles to it. These might be called the neck cells. 

 Below them a variable number of thin- walled irregular shaped cells 

 make up the body of the gland, and among them there are no inter- 

 cellular spaces or passages. 



On the lateral walls of the pitchers near to the base there are two 

 crescentiform raised patches inclined forward and downward towards 

 the front of the pitcher at a very acute angle. These are without 

 doubt the most active secreting organs of the plant. In mature 

 pitchers these patches are coloured a deep crimson ; whether they 

 serve in any sense as a bait to lure the insects into the pitcher I do 

 not know, but such an. idea is not improbable. 



Imbedded in these coloured patches are a number of very large 

 glands, one of which is shown on section in Fig. 9. Here we have 

 five neck cells exposed in section instead of three, as in the smaller 

 gland, and the body of the gland is much larger. Another modifi- 

 cation, and one which points to a higher differentiation, is that the 

 whole of the deeper portion of the gland is surrounded by an 

 envelope of small flattened cells, not glandular in character ; these 

 I propose to call the gland sheath. Dr. Dickson calls attention 

 also to anotlier peculiarity on these glandular patches, viz., that 

 " among the pigment cells are numerous oval bodies, each consisting 

 apparently of a central, somewhat elevated, oval cell, surrounded by 

 two or four others. These bodies are colourless, or slightly 

 yellowish, with brilliantly refractive cell walls." 



In a postscript, speaking of some notes he had received, he 

 adds : — " Sir J. D. Hooker has called them stomata, and certainly 

 tliey sometimes, especially in young pitchers, are often puzzlingly 

 like them. I have no doubt, however, of the centre of each being 

 filled with a ' central cell,' and from the observations I have made, 

 1 am disposed to think that, in a sense, they may be stomata, for 



