PITCHER-PLANTS. 103 



plants, forming the genus Nepenthes of botanists, 

 here reach their greatest development. Every moun- 

 tain-top abounds with them, running along the ground 

 or climbing over shrubs and stunted trees ; their 

 elegant pitchers hanging in every direction. Some 

 of these are long and slender, resembling in form the 

 beautiful Philippine lace-sponge, which has now be- 

 come so common ; others are broad and short ; their 

 colours are green, variously tinted, and mottled with 

 red or purple. The finest yet known were obtained 

 on the summit of Kini-balou, in north-west Borneo. 

 One of the broad sort^ will hold two quarts of 

 water in its pitcher. Another" has a narrow pitcher 

 20 inches long, while the plant itself grows to the 

 length of 20 feet." In 1847, when Lindley published 

 the second edition of his " Vegetable Kingdom," he 

 recorded, with somewhat of doubt, the number of 

 different species as six, whereas, so many have been 

 discovered since, that we may consider them equal to 

 five times that number. 



There are, says Dr. Hooker, "upwards of thirty 

 species of Nepenthes, natives of the hotter parts of 

 the Asiatic archipelago, from Borneo to Ceylon, with 

 a few outlying species in New Caledonia, in tropical 

 Australia, and in the Seychelles Islands on the 

 African coast. The pitchers are abundantly pro- 



1 Nepenthes rajah. - Nepenthes Edivardsiana. 



