1883-84.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 159 



have their concavities directed downwards, resembling much in ap- 

 pearance inverted waistcoat -pockets. Hooker mentions that in N. 

 Rafflesiana 3000 of these glands occur in a square inch. A fluid is 

 formed at the bottom of the pitcher which is secreted by these glands, 

 and is present before the lid of the pitcher opens. 



Insects are induced to visit the pitcher for the sake of the honey 

 secreted by the lid and the corrugated rim, and in doing so they are 

 apt either to fall into the pitcher or to be led on to the conductive 

 surface, down wliich they glide till they reach the fluid secretion, by 

 which they are eftectually " detained." Hooker states that the fluid 

 is invariably present, and that when emptied out of a pitcher which 

 has not received animal matter, it collects again in small quantities, 

 the formation going on for days, and even to some extent after the 

 pitcher has been removed from the plant. He did not find tliat 

 inorganic substances produced an increased flow of the secretion ; but 

 when animal substances were placed in the fluid, there was a marked 

 increase. The fluid is always acid, even before the opening of the 

 pitcher, and it seems to have the same digestive properties as Drosera, 

 Dionsea, and Pinguicula. It would appear, however, that the diges- 

 tive power of the fluid is not due entirely to the fluid first secreted 

 by the pitcher, but that a substance resembling pepsine in its action 

 is given ofl" from its inner wall, chiefly after the placing of animal 

 matter in the fluid. In support of this idea. Hooker states that very 

 little action took place on any of the substances placed in the fluid 

 drawn from pitchers and deposited in a glass tube, although the dis- 

 integration of the substances was three times more rapid in the fluid 

 than in distilled water. On the other hand, substances placed in the 

 fluid in the living j^itchers were acted on in a very rapid manner. 

 Cubes of boiled egg had their edges dissolved in 24 hours, and their 

 surfaces gelatinised. Fragments of fibrine weighing several grains were 

 dissolved, and totally disappeared in two or three days ; while lumps 

 of cartilage weighing 8 to 10 grains were greatly diminished, and re- 

 duced to a transparent jelly in three days. 



Sarracexia. 



This genus consists of eight species, all of which are natives of the 

 eastern States of Xorth America, where they are found growing in 

 marshes. The leaves are funnel-shaped, and spring from the ground 

 in tufts. The plants send up long slender stalks in the flowering 

 season, each of which bears a solitary flower of a remarkable appear- 

 ance, due to the termination of the style in an umbrella-like expan- 

 sion, which caused the first English settlers to give it the name of 

 " Side-saddle flower." There are two distinct forms of pitcher. 

 Into one form rain enters easily ; into the other, with difficulty. In 

 the first form, of which S. purpurea may be taken as the type, the 



