PITCHER-PLANTS. 



115 



we have failed to discover, in the records of the 

 investigations, any satisfactory evidence of the aggre- 

 gation of protoplasm, which in other plants has 

 afforded so strong an argument in favour of the 

 absorption of animal matter. From all this, if the 

 summary is a fair one, we are naturally led to con- 

 clude that the pitchers of the pitcher-plants are traps 

 to catch animals, as well as 

 stomachs to digest them, and 

 that there are sufficient grounds 

 for including the species of 

 Nepenthes am ongst insectivorous 

 or carnivorous plants. Further 

 investigation may probably dis- 

 cover something analogous to 

 aggregation. 



The Australian pitcher-plant 

 {CepJialotiis follicularis, fig. 15) is 

 a smaller and much more unpre- 

 tending plant than the true pit- 

 cher plants of the tropics. The 

 leaves are produced in a rosette close to the ground, 

 and consist of true leaves and pitchers. The latter are 

 attached to their footstalk in an opposite direction to 

 the pitchers of Nepenthes, the mouth being directed 

 towards the axis. The minute structure and anatomy 

 of these pitchers has been pretty exhaustively 



I 2 



Fi' 



. 14.— Pitcher of 

 Cephalotus. 



