LECT. IX.] APEXES OF LEAVES. 495 



apex of each leaf terminates in a long rigid thread, 

 a continuation of the midrib, bearing a small 

 covered pitcher, which is generally found nearly 

 full of water : in another species this pitcher is 

 sessile/* 1 ; and, in Dionsea muscipula, the ap- 

 pendage is composed of a pair of toothed lobes, 

 22, which are irritable; and which close together 

 and imprison insects that alight upon them-f~. 

 The apex is obtuse (obtmus), 23, (p. 493), when it 

 forms the segment of a circle or is rounded. The 

 rounded apex of a solid leaf, when a little thick- 



Amboyna growing in dry waste places; and also in Ceylon; 

 but I suspect that the Ceylon plant is a variety, if not a distinct 

 species, for the pitcher is not contracted at the neck, as in Rum- 

 phius's figure, and it is found growing only in moist valleys and 

 on the banks of rivers. At this time (August 1821), there are 

 several plants of Nepenthes distttlatoria vegetating in pots, in the 

 magnificent hothouse of Messrs. Loddiges, at Hackney. The 

 pitcher in this species is attached to the apex of the leaf, without 

 the medium of the twisted wire, which is found in Phyllam- 

 phora ; and there are, also, two leafy appendages running the 

 whole length of the pitcher, on that side of it which is next to the 

 plant. The lid exactly resembles that of Phyllamphora. A more 

 beautiful vegetable pitcher is found in the Cephalotus^/^ttfo- 

 ris, a New Holland marsh plant, which was discovered and de- 

 scribed by Mr. Robert Brown, to whose exertions and talents 

 Botanical science is most extensively indebted ; and is figured 

 in the atlas of Capt. Flinders's voyage ; but, as it is not ap- 

 pended to the leaf, I shall describe it among the general ap- 



f The cause of this vegetable phenomenon shall be after- 

 wards investigated. 



