THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 239 



able to that of these vegetable cups in which tiny in- 

 sects are apt to deposit their eggs. 



" The structure of the cups appeared at first per- 

 fectly inexplicable to botanists," says a correspondent 

 of the Magasin Pittoresque ; " for in no other plants 

 are actual tendrils found to develope themselves in 

 such singular manner." Dr. Hooker, the great Eng- 

 lish naturalist, however, soon ascertained by careful 

 observation the manner of its developement. The 

 leaf, as it first unfolds, presents a curious tendril or 

 cirrhus, extending beyond the extreme point of the 

 leaf. As this tendril lengthens, the small enlarge- 

 ment at the end increases, and the tendril, in the 

 mean time, gradually bends upwards at the point like 

 a hook ; the part thus bent continues to enlarge, the 

 substance of the stalk appearing to swell, until it at- 

 tains the size and form of a pitcher. The lid then 

 separates from the rim excepting at the upper and 

 outer side, where it remains more or less raised and 

 united, as by a hinge, to the pitcher. This pitcher, 

 being attached at its base to the slender, tendril- 

 like stalk, hangs suspended six inches or a foot from 

 the point of the leaf with which it is connected. 

 Forty or more pitchers sometimes hang around a sin- 

 gle plant. As the pitcher swells, and while the aper- 

 ture remains hermetically closed by the lids, a quan- 

 tity of pure, tasteless and colorless water collects in 

 the cavity, which, when the lid is raised, is generally 

 found at least one-third full of this infiltrated fluid. 

 In the J^afflesiana, the somewhat pear-shaped pitcher 

 is six inches deep and two or three inches in diame- 



