230 President's Address. 



enterprise of Messrs Veitch & Sons, Chelsea ; these are 

 N. Northiana, N. cincta, N. Curtisii, and quite recently 

 N. Burkei. There are at present in cultivation twenty 

 species and ten distinct and well-marked varieties that 

 have been introduced from abroad, and at least thirty-nine 

 named garden hybrids, raised in this country and in 

 America 



The first species of Nepenthes introduced into this 

 country was N. distillatoria, brought from Ceylon in 1789 

 by Sir Joseph Banks* My earliest recollection of 

 pitcher-plants at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden is of 

 two huge bushes trained in balloon fashion ; one was N. 

 Phyllampliora, the other N. Iccvis, but they rarely produced 

 pitchers. Indeed, at one time it was reckoned very 

 fortunate when a pitcher could be had to illustrate the 

 lectures of the late Professor Balfour. But with improved 

 means of raising young plants from cuttings, and the advent 

 of the earlier raised hybrids, pitchers could be had at all 

 times, — the hybrids N. Dominii, N. hyhrida, and particu- 

 larly K Sedcnii, being extremely free-growing, and 

 always having some pitchers developed. Nepenthes distil- 

 latoria, figured in the ' Botanical Magazine,' t. 2798, from a 

 male plant which grew in the Koyal Botanic Garden, and 

 described by Professor Graham in 1828, had long disappeared 

 before my association with the garden, but I recollect 

 seeing a contemporary of the figured plant growing in 

 Messrs Dickson & Sons' Nursery at Inverleith Eow. 

 This plant was a female, and had ripened seeds from which 

 the first seedlings raised in this country were produced. 

 The pollen to fertilise this Nepenthes was supplied by 

 Dr Neill, who had plants of both sexes of N. distillatoria 

 at Canonmills Lodge Garden. Dr Neill himself also 

 raised numerous seedlings of this species in 1835.t I 

 shall very briefly mention the species at present in culti- 

 vation, as well as those not in cultivation, in order that 

 those interested, who may be located or sojourning near to 

 where these plants are indigenous, may know which are 

 likely to be of value to cultivators. The simplest and 

 easiest way of introducing new kinds is by seeds. They 



* Alton's Hortus Keivensis. 



t London, Gardener s Magazine, 1836. 



