HORTUS VEITCHII 



ranks amongst the finest of the genus. N. x Mastersiana produces pitchers 

 remarkable for a fine coloration, rivalling that of N. sanguinea, with the 

 characteristic blotches of N. distillatoria. The plant is of a robust constitution, 

 dwarf in habit. 



A hybrid with peculiar-shaped pitchers was next obtained by crossing Nepenthes 

 hirsuta glabrescens with N. Veitchii. This, called N. x cylindrica, from the 

 shape of its pitchers, 6 to 8 in. long, cylindric, has a slight dilation below the 

 middle, is pale green in colour, with a few crimson spots and markings. 



Nepenthes x Dicksoniana, offered in 1889, is the offspring of N. Rafflesiana 

 flowering in the Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh, fertilized by pollen of N. 

 Veitchii sent from Chelsea. Mr. Lindsay, late Curator of the Edinburgh 

 Botanic Gardens, effected the cross, and in deference to his wish the seedling 

 bears the name of Professor Dickson, formerly Professor of Botany at the 

 University. The pitchers of the hybrid are fully 10 in. long, sub-cylindric, of a 

 light fulvous green, densely spotted and speckled with bright crimson. 



A very mixed variety named Nepenthes x * rufescens, sent out with N. x 

 Dicksoniana, is remarkable in having the blood of three species and two hybrids 

 in its composition. Raised at Chelsea from N. x Courtii crossed with N. zeylanica 

 rubra, N. x Courtii, itself a hybrid from an unnamed Bornean species and 

 N. x Dominiana, the latter also a hybrid between N. Rafflesiana and the same 

 unnamed Bornean species. 



George Tivey, to whose charge the Nepenthes were eventually entrusted, has 

 produced some excellent crosses, the parentage indisputable, a statement which 

 cannot be made without reserve of some of the earlier results, of which records 

 are imperfect, and when the variability both in colour and shape of the pitchers, 

 a marked characteristic of seedling Nepenthes, was not so well understood or 

 appreciated. 



Tivey's first hybrid, t Nepenthes x mixta, was from two beautiful species, N. 

 Northiana and N. Curtisii, the latter the pollen parent. As might be expected 

 N. x mixta is a fine cross, with pitchers 1 ft. or more in length, of a cream- 

 yellow colour suffused with red and blotched as is N. Northiana. The wings 

 shallow, are deeply laciniated ; the ribs, which form the mouth of the pitcher, 

 of a rich shining crimson. It was distributed in 1893. A handsome variety, 

 N. x mixta sanguinea, has reddish-brown pitchers spotted with large blotches of 

 chocolate-brown . 



The next success was a superb cross from Nepenthes Veitchii and N. Curtisii, 

 J N. x Tiveyi, named in compliment to the raiser. N. Veitchii is one of the 

 grandest Pitcher-plants in cultivation, remarkable for hairy pitchers and a 

 curious gill-like peristome, and many of the best characteristics have been 

 imparted to the hybrid, the most conspicuous the broad rim round the mouth, 

 richly coloured a deep mahogany-red, with occasional transverse bars of a deeper 

 shade. The pitchers, larger than those of N. Veitchii, have much the same 

 form, but are on finer lines. 



Nepenthes x Balfouriana, an especially interesting hybrid, has for parents 

 two hybrids, and four distinct species concerned in the production. It is the 

 outcome of a cross between N. x Mastersiana and N. x mixta ; N. x Mastersiana 



* Masters in Gard. Chron. 1888, vol. iv. p. 699, fig. 95. 



t Gard. Chron. 1893, vol. xiii. fig. 9. 



J Gard. Chron. 1897, vol. xxii. pp. 200, 201, fig. ; Gard. Mag. 1897, Sept. 18th. 



488 



