THE STRUCTURES OF PITCHER PLANTS. 59 



column of fluid contained in the niultifids, just as in the tubular 

 trichomes of Sarracenia. This is probably the result of injury. 



Stomata are not very numerous on the outsides of any kind of pitcher 

 which I have examined, and they are not found at all on the inner 

 surfaces. Numerous multifids and buds exist on the upper surfaoes of 

 the lids of all pitchers and on the under surfaces of such lids as do not 

 cover the mouth. On such lids as do cover the mouths of the pitchers, 

 as in N. distillatoria, they exist only as buds, and usually are not 

 numerous, but they are also found inside the pitcher on a short zone 

 immediately above the true glands. This, together with other reasons 

 already given, leads me to believe that these structures arc for the 

 absorption of water and substances dissolved in it. It may be here just 

 noted that these multifids exist in great abundance on the backs of the 

 lobes of the Dionsea, and that when the trap is closed, they afford a 

 spongy surface on which water remains for a long time, and its absorp- 

 tion there I think must be of great use to the plant when the trap is 

 closed and the process of digestion is going on. On all the surfaces 

 mentioned these buds are seen occasionally to be sunk beneath the 

 epithelial surface, and to present the peculiar appearances already 

 described in Cephalotus. This appearance in Nepenthes has been 

 described by Lindley as a special kind of stoma, but he admits that they 

 do not open into cavities of the parenchyma as is the case with the latter. 

 (Introduction to Botany, Vol. I., p. 142.) 



On the under surface of the lids of most pitchers are to be seen 

 glands identical in structure with those to be immediately described as 

 occurring on the inner surface of the pitcher. Dr. Hooker believes these 

 to be honey glands, but I differ from that eminent authority for the 

 following reasons : — That they are identical in structure with the true 

 digestive glands, and that they are better marked in the pitchers where 

 the lids cover the mouth completely than in those which do not ; that 

 in many such, as in N. distillatoria, they are hooded in exactly the same 

 way as the glands of the pitcher ; that when the gland is excited by 

 food I have been able to detect acid secretion collected in the hoods of 

 the lid glands of N. distillatoria ; that nectaries are usually very 

 inconspicuous, and only a small spot of tissue which, without being trans- 

 formed, produces the nectar. (Sachs.) 



Spiral tissue abounds in every part of the parenchyma of Nepenthes' 

 pitchers. The most important structures in Nepenthes' pitchers are 

 the round or oval glands found regularly distributed over a greater or 

 less extent of the inner surface. These glands are sometimes to be 

 found throughout the whole extent of a pitcher, as in N. Rafflesiana ; 

 but in many kinds they are limited to the lower part. When this is the 

 case there are always two clearly defined zones, the upper of which 

 resists wetting, and throws off water, while the lower readily retains it. 

 On this upper surface the epithelium is irregularly polygonal in some 

 pitchers, but in the majority it is of the sinuous kind and interspersed 

 with regularly distributed crescentic markings of very small size, (-03mm. 

 in length by -01 in breadth,) which are arranged with the concavities 



