2122 



NEOTTIA 



NEPENTHES 



Asia, sometimes transferred to grounds, but little known 

 as cult, plants. The N. Petola, Blume, of orchid collec- 

 tions, is Macodes Petola, which see. N . speciosa, Jacq., 

 is Spiranthes, and N. pubescens, Willd., is Goodyera 

 pubescens. 



Leafless and brown, the st. with sheathing scales 

 rather than Ivs. : fls. brownish, in a raceme or spike; 

 perianth hooded; lip deflexed and 2-lobed; column 

 long and free, the anther hinged on the back of it. N. 

 Nidus-avis, Linn., is the bird's-nest orchid of Great 

 Britain and the continent, frequenting beech woods 

 particularly: root a mass of interlaced stout fibers from 

 the extremities of which young plants are produced: 

 st. 12-18 in. high: fls. many in a dense spike ^in. 

 long, with short bracts. L H. B. 



NEOTTOPTERIS (name means bird's-nest fern). 

 Asplenium Nidus, of which N. australasicum is by 

 botanists considered to be a synonym, although by 

 others kept distinct. A. Nidus is widespread in Tropi- 

 cal Asia and the Pacific Islands, and is a most striking 

 large fern. B.M. 3101. G. 13:85, where distinctions are 

 made between AT. australasicum and N. Nidus. 



NEPENTHES (from Greek for without, and care}. 

 Nepenihacese, the only genus of the family. The genus 

 includes those forms that are popularly called PITCHER- 

 PLANTS, and consists of about seventy species, all of which 

 are found in the Orient. The generic name was given 

 in allusion to the statement in the "Odyssey," where 

 Helen so drugged the wine-cup that its contents freed 

 men from care and grief. Linnaeus in naming the genus 

 truly expressed the feeling that some travelers have 

 since experienced when he said "If this is not Helen's 

 Nepenthes, it certainly will be for all botanists. What 

 botanist would not be filled with admiration, if after a 

 long journey he should find this wonderful plant? In 

 his astonishment past ills would be forgotten when 

 beholding this admirable work of the Creator." 



All of the nepenthes are climbing or rarely upright 

 plants of rather straggling habit and semi-woody con- 

 sistence. In height they vary from a foot to 60 or 70 

 feet, while the stem varies from the thickness of a 

 pencil to an inch across. In their native haunts the 



plants spread their 

 rootage abund- 

 antly through the 

 decaying humus 

 of moist "scrub" 

 land, and when 

 planted in an 

 open greenhouse 

 border, they grow 

 equally vigor- 

 ously. But the 

 roots always 

 spread near the 

 surface, and free 

 oxygen exchange 

 is necessary. Some 

 of the more strik- 

 ing species, like N. 

 Veitchii and N. 

 Edwardsiana, are 

 often or habitually 

 epiphytic. The 

 former has be- 

 come so adapted 

 to this mode of 

 life, that its stem 

 creeps horizon- 

 tally or obliquely 

 upward along tree 

 branches, while 

 the leaves with 

 their yellow-green 



2460. Good method of propagating 



nepenthes. 



The cutting is placed in an inverted 

 pot. The stick at the right wedges the 

 cutting and keeps it tight; it may also 

 carry the label. The pot is cut in two 

 vertically to show how the roots form in 

 the air, without the aid of sand, water or 

 even moss. 



pitchers spread in double rows on either side. Such 

 forms, therefore, succeed only under cultivation when 

 treated like the epiphytic orchids. Well-known species, 

 like N. ampullaria and N. Rafflesiana, may form long 

 rope-like stems amid the rather open forest vegetation 

 of their native haunts, and then spread out amongst 

 the tree crowns, there to bear the graceful pitchers and 

 the racemes of nectariferous flowers. These latter, 

 according to Burbidge, are often encircled by groups 

 of insects. 



Each fully developed leaf is of complicated structure. 

 It may be either sessile or stalked, but always has a 

 lower flattened blade portion, that is traversed length- 

 wise by two to ten or twelve veins, all of which are 

 braced together in turn by transverse or oblique nerves. 

 The number and disposition of the former yield valuable 

 aid in classification of the species. The midrib is then 

 prolonged as a tendril of varying length, but of great 

 tenacity. This can wind around supports, and alike 

 helps the stem in bearing the crown of leaves, and sup- 

 ports the pitchers with their often considerable weight 

 of water. 



The pitcher is the greatly expanded and hollowed-out 

 end of the midrib. It usually bears two fringed or 

 ciliate wings in front, that in the seedling leaf are con- 

 tinuous with the blade below, and gradually become 

 separated from it as older leaves are produced. They 

 represent, therefore, lobes that are separated off from 

 the blade portion in the early history of the leaves. The 

 margin of each pitcher, except in N. Lowii (Fig. 2462), 

 is widened or thickened without and within into a 

 collar-like rim or peristome, that is striated, corrugated 

 or even ridged from within outward, and is of shining 

 aspect. The inner, or the outer, or both rim-margins 

 may be curved downward and inward, so as to give a 

 cylindric aspect to the peristome (Fig. 2463), or it may 

 be widely expanded as a spreading collar (Fig. 2465). 

 The pitchered or hollowed-out midrib ends in a small 

 spur at the back of the peristome, and just behind the 

 insertion of the lid that next deserves notice. This lid 

 represents two terminal lobes of the leaf formed on 

 either side of the spur, and which have grown for- 

 ward, have fused, and so have caused the lid to be 

 traversed by two main veins from which minor ones 

 may branch off. 



All of the above details would be comparatively 

 unintelligible did we not refer shortly now to the numer- 

 ous secreting glands that are formed over the leaf, and 

 to the function of these in securing the capture and 

 digestion of insects or other prey. Over the lower blade 

 surface, here and there along the tendril, over the 

 pitcher and lid exterior, but most abundantly over the 

 inner lid surface, small spots can readily be detected 

 that exude a honied juice. This is greedily licked by 

 ants, cockroaches, and other mostly running insects. 

 They are thus attracted to the edge of the peristome, 

 or upward to the inner lid surface with its rich nectar 

 supplies. In either case they usually step ultimately 

 on the shining surface of the peristome. But the finely 

 or coarsely serrated inner edge of this carries the open- 

 ings of large sunken glands. These exude a juice that is 

 greatly liked by insects. In attempting to reach the 

 droplets they often slide off into the pitcher interior. 

 This shows a different but equally noteworthy device. 

 In some species, like the commonly grown N. ampul- 

 laria, N. Hookeriana and N. Chelsonii, the entire pitcher 

 interior is smooth and glistening, but abundantly 

 studded with small glands that excrete an acid pepto- 

 nizing fluid, capable of converting albuminous sub- 

 stances like animal flesh or white of egg into a dis- 

 solved peptone or even into a simpler tryptophan 

 product that can readily be absorbed and assimilated 

 by the inner pitcher wall. 



In most species and hybrids, however, now under 

 cultivation, the upper one-third or one-half, of the 

 pitcher interior is extremely smooth and bluish or pur- 



