156 W. H. GILIiLTvT ON THE 



they are in close contact witli the snrronnding cells of the paren- 

 chyma. Both forms of glands are peculiar in that the cell-walls 

 are somewhat strongly thickened. 



We now come to the intercellular canals and absorbent hairs 

 described by Dr. Tait. At the risk of repetition, I think it will be 

 better to quote what is said concerning them—" Another yariety of 

 epithelial absorbent is the tubular trichome found in certain pitchers. 

 It is always associated with a system of intercellular canals, and 

 seems really to be developed from the protoplasm contained in these 

 canals more than from a cell, the cell-wall apparently going to con- 

 stitute the lining membrane of the tube, its protoplasm disap- 

 pearing." 



Also in his description of the inner surface of S. jiurpicrea he 

 states that these intercellular canals are present in the three lower 

 zones into which it is divided. 



Taking this species, which he states is the best for observation, 

 after long and patient examination I have failed to find anything 

 which could be looked upon as a canal. Sections horizontal to the 

 surface and in every other direction have been made. I examined 

 them with the cell contents in place, and after they had been 

 removed, but still without success. I, of course, naturally looked to 

 find them, as they had communication with the hairs, coming up to 

 the surface from the deeper layers of the leaf ; but that could not 

 possibly be the case, the very form of the two outermost layers of 

 cells precluding it. The arrangement here is the reverse of that 

 which usually obtains. In Figs. 6, 7 are shown the forms of the 

 cells of these two layers, Fig. 6 being the surface layer of the second 

 zone, and Fig. 7 the layer immediately beneath, the latter being 

 sinuous in outline, a character which we generally find belonging to 

 superficial cells. Between the cells of this second layer there are 

 no openings, so that no canals could ascend from the deeper tissue ; 

 therefore, if they exist in connection with the trichomes, they must 

 be confined to the epidermis, but there was nothing that I could 

 recognise as answering to the description. When, hoAvevor, I came 

 to his account of similar structures in Nepenthes, I saw how in all 

 probability he had been misled. The epidermal cells in Sarracenia 

 have thick, highly refractive cell-walls, and it seems to me that it is 

 these which Dr. Tait has interpreted as canals. 



This conclusion receives support from what he says concerning 

 the origin of the tubular trichomes. He observed that the hairs 



