1068 



NEPENTHES 



NEPENTHES 



below the water-line, seHniin? to know by instinct— or is 

 it experience? — that thi- ^\■:lt.■^of ihc pitchers so operated 

 upon will well up the Imlr as ii il.n's in a sj'phon pipe." 

 The two species of pifi-lii-r iilaiils just mentionej are 

 constantly robbed by insect-eating liirds. The Borneaus 

 call the pitcher plants " monkeys' cooking pots." Bur- 

 bidge was presented by the natives with delicious rice 

 daintily cooked in clean pitchers of N. Hookeriana. 



The pitchers of Nepenthes are borne at the ends of 

 the leaves. They are usually flask-shaped, sometimes 

 mug-shaped, rarely cylindrical. (For examples of these 

 3 shapes, see Figs. 1470-72.) A pitcher always has a lid. 



1467. Nepenthes Veitchii. 

 Celebrated for its wide rim. 



a mouth surrounded by a rim, a little spur at the back 

 (which is usually just where the midrib of the back of 

 the pitcher joins the lid) and two wings running up and 

 down the front of the pitcher. The broader these wings 

 and the longer their fringes the handsomer the pitcher, 

 as a rule. The rim around the mouth sometimes bears 

 numerous downward-pointing teeth, which have been 

 supposed to turn back insect refugees. 



With the exception of about half a dozen very distinct 

 types which will be mentioned later. Nepenthes species 

 are too much alike. So far as records and pictures go, 

 practically all the hybrids are as much alike as so many 

 peas, at least so far as pitchers are concerned. A few 

 exceptional kinds can be told by the hairiness or broad 

 bases of their leaves, or by venation. Even the flowers 

 furnish little help in distinguishing species and, as a 

 rule, the cultivator wants pitchers, not flowers. The 

 pitchers will "hold water," but it is doubtful if the pres- 

 ent classification of them will. The difficulties of the 

 case will be apparent from the following account of how 

 the pitchers change in form and color as a plant de- 

 velops. 



How the Pitchers Change. — When a Nepenthes is 

 grown from seed, the very first thing that develops after 



the cotyledons is a little pitcher. "These young pitch- 

 ers," according to Harry James Veitch, "are at first 

 continuous with the blade and form part of it ; then 

 sessile, and later separated from it by a prolongation of 

 the midrib; they are produced simultaneously with the 

 blade, not after it, as in the adult plant. • • • As 

 leaves continue to be produced, so a gradual change in 

 the size and shape of the pitchers hpcimics apparent. 

 Instead of the pitcher IkIiil:: I'n.duci-d sinmltaneously 

 with the blade, it lat's Iji hind, as it were; tht- midrib is 

 perceptibly prolonged Ireyoml tlic apex uf llie blade while 

 the pitcher is still rudiiiieiitar\ . an. I this continues till 

 leaves are pr.Mlu.ed wiih lull size, I |,itelHrs. If the stem 

 is allowed to gri I w witheut i luek, the pitchers appended 

 to the leaves successively produced iiiidi-rnu a cliange in 

 shape and dimensions still more ri'niarkaljle than what 

 takes place during the progress of develnjinienf from the 

 infantine to what is regarded as the i>erfect form of the 

 pitcher. * » • [See Fig. 1470.] As leaf after leaf is 

 produced from the ascending stem, the pitchers first 

 become longer and narrower; then follows a gradual 

 diminution of the parts while the ].itehers are being 

 modified from the Ihi-k sli;i|>e ii. ihe eyiindric shape; 

 the ventral wiii^^s eeiiviaTii|\ .liitiniisti in breadth and 

 the ciliate fringe disappears until tlie place of the wings 

 is denoted only by two narrow keels, and instances 

 have been observed in which even these are oblite- 

 rated. The pitchers not only undergo change in size, 

 form and color, but they also change their position in 

 respect to the prolonged midrib. By the time the seventh 

 or eighth pitcher has been produced above that which 

 we have alrearly referred to as the perfect pitcher, the 

 prolon^'e.l niiilrili lias made half a revolution on its own 

 axis, SI. ili;.t tin- pitcher has now its dorsal side toward 

 it. As the pif.-lnrs diminish in size with the ascent of 

 the stem, so when a certain stage of growth is reached, 

 and as the plants arrive at the time of flowering, they 

 cease to be produced altogether, but the stem continues 

 to grow and produces leaves with prolonged midribs, 

 affording a support to the plant and its inflorescence 

 while maturing its seed. Sir Hugh Low observed of 

 iV. ampnilaria, which he saw in Sarawak, that the first 

 formed leaves have no blades but only pitchers, with 

 which the ground is frequently covered as with a 

 carpet." 



Other habits of growth are no less interesting. Some 

 of the Nepenthes keep to the ground, lint in(.st of them 

 climb tall trees. The species are, with ver\' few excep- 

 tions, all more or less epiphytal, anci ^V. l\ i/chii is said 

 to be wholly so. As they climb, the tips of the leaves 

 take a turn or two around a nearby twig. Like all pitcher 

 plants. Nepenthes are poorly supplied with roots, and 

 as the plants grow above they are said to die away below. 

 Thus their lowest point may be 20 feet above ground. 

 However, they can send out new roots all along the stem 

 and penetrate the thick covering of moss and lichen 

 often found on the trunks of trees growing in hot, 

 ihoist regions. As to size of pitchers the species vary 

 greatly. The kinds first known to cultivation, as N. f/rac- 

 i'.is, ampnilaria and PIii)Hamjilinia, have pitchers 

 about as large as a man's thumb. Others, as 3'. Xi,rlhi- 

 ana, Veitchii, Rafflesluiiii , biealrnratn and sa)iiii,iiii;i , 

 may be 0-12 in. long or more. The great Rajah, which 

 is a dwarf plant about 4 ft. high, with its pitchers rest- 

 ing on the ground in a circle, has been known to have 

 pitchers holding 2 quarts, while in another was found 

 a drowned rat. The fls. of a Nepenthes are produced in 

 a pseudo-terminal fashion on oUl plants. The male and 

 female fls. are borne on separate plants. They are green 

 or purple, small, a hundred or so in a raceme or panicle, 

 with 4 perianth segments. Ordinarily Nepenthes are 

 not permitted to flower, the stems being stopped, partly 

 for the sake of taking cuttings, but chiefly because the 

 most and best pitchers are produced from the new 

 growth of compact plants rather than from tall and 

 straggling specimens. 



"Of the .36 species, or thereabouts, known to science,' 

 says Veitch, "14 are confined to Borneo, 3 more are 

 common to that and adjacent islands, 13 more are extra- 

 Bornean but strictly Malaysian, the remaining are 

 much scattered — there is one in North Australia, one 

 in New Caledonia, one in Ceylon, one in the Seychelles, 

 one in Madagascar and one in northeast India." The 



