THE STRUCTURES OF PITCHER PLANTS. 265 
NOTES ON THE STRUCTURES OF PITCHER PLANTS. 
BY LAWSON TAIT, F.R.C.S., PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY TO THE 
BIRMINGHAM ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTISTS, ETC. 
The following notes comprise a series of jottings on the 
structures of these interesting plants, made whilst I was investigating, at 
the suggestion of Mr. Darwin, their digestive powers. Some of the 
observations are, I know, not new, and others I am equally certain will 
not be admitted without further corroboration. They were made at a 
time when leisure was more abundant to me than it is now, and I may 
therefore be excused if I say that I am not likely to travel over the 
ground again, and shall therefore leave any corrections which may be 
necessary to be made by future observers. 
Mr. Darwin was the first to use the term ‘“ quadrifid” to describe 
certain structures inside the pitcher, which I think he shows are asso- 
ciated with the process of absorption. The term is a very useful one, 
and I have adopted it, and modifications of it, to describe certain 
epithelial structures which are of very frequent and constant occurrence 
in pitcher plants. They consist merely of modified epithelial cells, the 
walls of which are lined with a thin layer of protoplasm and divided 
into arms, so that the cell is composed of a set of branching tubes, con- 
ducting to one stem, in which is placed the cell nucleus. The number 
of arms is very various, and therefore I generally speak of these bodies 
as multifids. They are most numerous, and are most fully developed on 
the outsides of pitchers covered by the lid from the access of rain, and 
they are especially large and numerous on those parts of the pitcher 
where water is most apt to lodge. Thus, in a pitcher of a young plant of 
Nepenthes Rafflesiana they are largest at the point where the stem bends 
at the base of the pitcher, and in the curvature; the spot where of 
course water would be longest in evaporating from the surface of the 
pitcher. Over the general surface of the pitcher they are much smaller, 
and indeed are mostly to be found only as aborted buds. (Plate VII., Fig. 1.) 
In the reversed coriaceous pitchers of anold plant (N. Raflesiana) 
they are often to be found only as buds slightly raised above the general 
Rererences To Puate VII. 
Fig. 1.—Mnultifid and bud from Nepenthes Rafflesiana. 
Fig. 2.—Included gland, Drosera rotundifolia, 
Fig. 3.— Ad 33 Pinguicula alpina. 
Fig. 4.— 4 - Sarracenia flava. 
Fig. 5.—Ostiole from pedicel of Drosera gland. 
Fig. 6.—Tubular trichome from fourth zone of young pitcher of Sarracenia 
purpurea. 
REFERENCES TO Piatt VIL. 
Fig. 7.—Glandulous lacuna infested with fungous growth, Sarracenia rubra. 
Fig. 8.—Nucleated lacunar expansion from lip of Darlingtonia. 
Fig.9.—First and second zones of Sarracenia purpurea, showing sudden 
transition. 
Fig. 10.—Nectaries of Darlingtonia. 
Fig. 11.—Secreting gland of Nepenthes distillatoria, in section, showing the hood. 
Fig. 12.—Ditto, at upper part of glandular zone. 
Fig, 124.—Ditto, at lower part of glandular zone. 
Lone) 
