THE PITCHER PLANT. 79 
of time quite pure and sweet. This, Nature provides 
for the use of the plant. It grows on the dry stump 
of a withered tree, and from the sapless wood it could 
derive no nourishment; and thus a new mode of sup- 
plying it with moisture is found. Nor is this all; 
the plant generally grows on trees on the tops of 
mountains, where there are neither streams nor 
springs, and in hot weather it frequently yields the 
traveller a cool and refreshing draught, when no other 
water can be found near it. 
There are also some 
plants which spring up in 
dry and sunburnt soils, 
whose herbage is of so 
juicy a nature, as to serve 
the same purpose as water 
in quenching the thirst. 
But perhaps the most re- 
markable plant yet known, 
which possesses the faculty Pitcher Piout 
of secreting pure water, is the Pitcher Plant. From 
the end of each leaf hangs a large vessel in the shape 
of a pitcher, and capable of holding nearly a pint 
of water; each pitcher has a lid fitting closely to 
the top, and opening wide upon its hinges in damp 
weather, and again closing when it is dry, to prevent 
evaporation. But how, it may be asked, is this deli- 
cately suspended vessel supported when so full? Na- 
ture here supplies an adequate provision ; behind the 
lid is placed a little hook, which, with marvellous 
aagacity, catches hold upon some neighboring twig 
