NEPENTHES, 



Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



Bornean species of these singular stove 

 plants became sufficiently plentiful to be 

 procurable, many people who had the con- 

 venience of a stove attempted their cultiva- t 

 tion, but in most cases with indifferent 

 success, no doubt through comparatively 

 little being known of the course of treat- j 

 ment tliat they require. A knowledge of 

 the temperature and humidity of the ' 

 atmosphere whence they came was enough 

 to point conclusively to the fact that without 

 tlie means of, at all times in the year, being | 

 able to accommodate them with as much 

 heat as most hot-region plants require, it 

 is of little use attempting to grow them, as 

 though they may be kept alive with less 

 than this, they will never acquire the 

 strength necessary to produce their curious 

 pitcher-like leaves in the manner required 

 — and without these there is little interest 

 attached to them. Another and frequent 

 cause of the plants forming pitchers but 

 very sparingly, even when they grew in 

 other ways freely, was either too much 

 shading, or what amounts to much the 

 same thing, a position too far from the 

 glass. For with only one exception, and 

 that X. lanata, among all we have grown, 

 we have found that if their heads are kept 

 within a few inches of the glass they 

 succeed best, having a strength and Aagour 

 in both root and top growth not attainable 

 by any other means ; and, as might 

 naturally be supposed, the pitchers acquire 

 a higher degree of colour when kept up 

 close to the roof. Another matter of more 

 importance with these plants than any 

 others in cultivation, is never to injure the 

 roots in potting, for if this .should occur to 

 an extent that would scarcely have any 

 perceptible effect upon most things, it will 

 in aU probability cause their death, or bring 

 about a condition little better than actual 

 loss. TVe may here remark, for the benefit 

 of those who have not had any .experience 

 at all with them, that their roots are so 

 fragile and dead looking, even when the 

 plants are in every way healthy, that we 

 have known them all pulled off under the 

 impression that they were dead. They 

 are very spare rooters, needing much less 

 room than most things, and when repotting 

 becomes requisite, there must be no 

 attempt at shaking any of the old soil 

 away. Consequently from the first it is 

 necessary that the material they are grown 

 in should be such as is least likely to get 

 into a decomposed state, for when it is close 

 and soapy the roots cannot live in it, and 

 from the large amount of water they 

 always want it is liable to become sour — 

 when in active growth they need watering 

 freely every day, and during the ■winter 



i; 



must be kept much more moist than the 

 generality of plants. Even under the 

 most successful course of treatment, there 

 will be a space of four or five years from the 

 time a young plant is first well rooted 

 until it arrives at a size that will exhibit 

 the full development of which it is capable ; 

 for, not until it has been twice headed 

 back, and has again got furnished witli 

 from four to six shoots, each bearing their 

 full complement of pitchers, has all that 

 is desirable been attained. Consequently 

 it will be easily understood that the best 

 and most lasting material that it is possible 

 to find wherein to grow the plants ■svill 

 eventually get so completely decomposed 

 through the necessity of its bemg kept all 

 but saturated with water, that it becomes 

 like soft putty, in which condition the 

 roots cannot exist ; and, as already stated, 

 they are so brittle that the old material 

 cannot be got away in the ordinary manner, 

 but this can be effecteil by means of a pail- 

 ful of tepid water in which the ball should 

 be plunged with both hands under it, and 

 the exhausted matter got away by carefully 

 moving the fingers. With a little time and 

 patience in this way the roots can be 

 wholly preserved in a perfectly clean state 

 ready for transferring to a fresh pot with 

 new soil ; but on no accoixnt should there 

 be any attempt at opening them out, as 

 this will most likely end in their being 

 mucli injured. The best kinds, such as N. 

 sanguinea, N. Rafflesiana, and N. lanata, 

 are more tender-rooted than the commoner 

 species. About the end of February or 

 March is the most suitable time in the year 

 for either shifting on into larger pots those 

 young and medium-sized plants that want 

 more root-room or for washing out, as above 

 described, any older examples that need 

 entirely new material. Pots proportionately 

 so large as would be required for the 

 generality of plants would not do for 

 Nepenthes, as if too great a body of soil is 

 present it gets sour directly. The largest 

 specimens we ever had were gro-mi in pots 

 not more than 10 or 12 inches in diameter. 

 The manner these plants are often allowed 

 to run up straggling to a considerable 

 height on a rafter or pillar is not the way 

 for seeing them to the most advantage, as 

 when the shoots of the best sorts have 

 attained 4 or 5 feet in height — with some 

 much less than this — the pitchers assume 

 a character which is understood amongst 

 growers as run-out ; that is, they come 

 devoid of their wing-like appendages and 

 are very different in form from those that 

 are produced by the leaves on the stems 

 before they get such a height. The best 

 position for them is hung up to the ridge 



