NEPENTHES 



NEPENTHES 



2123 



plish waxy in aspect. This forms a sliding or "conduct- 

 ing" surface, that ensures dropping of insects into the 

 lower area, where digestive glands occur as already 

 described. So following the nomenclature of Hooker 

 and the writer, the general external leaf area with its 

 scattered honey-glands forms the "alluring" surface. 

 The inner lid area and the peristome rim with their con- 

 centrated honey-glands, form the "attractive" surface, 

 the smooth upper part of the ulterior that is devoid of 

 glands can well be named the "conducting" surface, 

 while the glistening lower area with its abundant 

 digestive glands, forms the "detentive" and digestive 

 surface. 



In greenhouses where ants and cockroaches occur, 

 the captured prey soon accumulate in such pitchers as 

 N. hybrida, N. Hookeriana or N. khasiana, at times 

 also to such an extent that the ammoniacal fumes of 

 the decaying contents cause a brown discoloring of the 

 pitcher -wall. The loose stuffing, therefore, of the 

 pitchers with wadding or moss has been recommended 

 by some growers. But it appears certain that the 

 pitchers are thereby prevented from securing, digesting, 

 and absorbing animal prey that seems to aid in the 

 nutrition of the plant under wild as under cultivated 

 conditions. 



Another feature deserves mention here from the 

 cultural and physiological standpoints. The leaves bear 

 an abundance of minute brown peltate hairs, that 

 appear to the naked eye as dark specks.- Even though 

 nepenthes be almost wholly deprived for a time of 

 their roots, the plants remain healthy if kept in a moist 

 atmosphere. This and other evidence, that cannot here 

 be cited, suggest that atmospheric moisture may be 

 absorbed directly through the leaf surface, though such 

 a view is contrary to current physiological opinion. 



In contrast to the above relations, it has been shown 

 by three observers that several species of insects and 

 also a spider are capable of living, and even, in some 

 cases, of breeding, in the pitcher liquid, while they are 

 able with impunity to ascend and pass out from the 

 pitcher cavity. Their ability to live in the pitcher 

 liquid that digests other insects seems to be due to 

 their having an antagonistic or neutralizing ferment 

 to that in the pitchers. 



The size, shape, and color-markings of the pitchers 

 vary greatly. The pitchers of the rare N. bicalcarata 

 are usually yellow-green, but may be of a faint brick- 

 red. Projecting downward from the top of its high neck 

 and so overhanging the pitcher-cavity are two strong 

 sharp spines. These have been considered by Burbidge 

 to act as protective spines against the thieving habits 

 of a small lemur (Tarsius spectrum) that attempts to 

 rifle the pitchers of their insect prey. When it tries the 

 above it is often caught by the nape of the neck, and 

 tumbled into the pitcher. Equally curious in the same 

 species is the thickened end of the tendril alongside 

 the pitcher, that is always thickened, and in the wild 

 state is drilled by ants which form a home or myrmi- 

 carium in the interior. 



N. Lowii (Fig. 2462) has large leathery urnshaped 

 pitchers of a greenish yellow hue, each strongly con- 

 stricted in the middle, and so in outline resembling the 

 finely colored N . ventricosa and N. Burkei, now in cul- 

 tivation from the Philippines. N. Rajah, found about 

 6,000 feet on Kinabalu only, attains a height of 5 to 6 

 feet, but its huge claret-crimson goblet pitchers sit in 

 the moist moss of the ground at the ends of the large 

 dependent leaves which spread out from the stout stem. 

 .Y. villosa and N. Edwardsiana are soil-growers or often 

 epiphytes with brilliant crimson pitchers of striking 

 aspect that grow on Kinabalu at 8,000 to 10,000 feet 

 elevation. Two splendid new species, N. Merrilliana 

 and N. truncata, have recently been described from the 

 Philippines, which suggests that these islands may yet 

 yield other attractive types. 



The flowers appear in panicled or simple racemes on 



the young wood, and each raceme is opposite a bract- 

 leaf that differs usually in shape and venation from 

 the other foliage-leaves. In greenhouses of the north- 

 eastern states, these inflorescences appear as a rule, 

 from July to October, but only on plants or on shoots 

 that have been allowed to grow long. Thus racemes 

 appear on N. maxima (N. Curtisii), N. Hookeriana, and 

 N. phyllamphora 

 when the shoots are 

 from 5 to 12 feet long. 

 The plants are always 

 dioecious, and so for 

 production of seeds 

 under cultivation a 

 staminate and pis- 

 tillate plant must be 

 in bloom simulta- 

 neously. Failing this, 

 it has been shown 

 experimentally that 

 pollen from a stami- 

 nate plant can be 

 kept good for days 

 or even weeks, if pre- 

 served in tinfoil or in 

 paraffin paper and in 

 a cool place. Taplin 2461 - A simple propagating-frame. 

 adopted this method Used by Robert Shore for propaga- 



in ordpr tn <w>rnrp ting ne P enthes - dracenas and other 



in order to secure tropical subjects, 

 some of his fine hy- 

 brids, while N. Dicksoniana (page 2128) was got in the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Garden from the seed-parent N. 

 Rafflesiana, by applying to it pollen of N. Veitchii for- 

 warded from the Veitch establishment in London. 



The staminate flowers are produced in dense panicu- 

 late cymes as in AT. ampullaria, or in loose simple 

 racemes as in N. gradlis and N. sanguined. Each con- 

 sists of four green, yellowish, red or claret-colored sepals, 

 about % by Y inch in size on the average, and of 

 rather thick texture. The inner surface is closely dotted 

 over with honey-glands that resemble the attractive 

 lid-glands, and which pour out an abundant nectar 

 secretion at the time of blooming. This is often accom- 

 panied by a heavy somewhat fetid odor, and the two 

 attractions draw small insects in great numbers to the 

 flowers. Becoming dusted with pollen they carry this 

 to pistillate flowers on other plants. The stamens rarely 

 may be from twenty to twelve in number, commonly 

 they are from ten to eight, or they may be as few as 

 four. The filaments are fused into a short pillar that 

 bears the terminal anthers in a rounded crowded mass. 

 When the latter dehisce the whole appears as a dusty 

 ball of pollen. 



The pistillate flowers bear sepals like those of the 

 staminate. The pistil consists of four carpels that are 

 united below to form a four-celled ovary. This incloses 

 many minute elongated ovules, which after fertilization 

 continue to lengthen, and swell up hi the middle to 

 form the seeds. The style is either very short and thick, 

 or is practically absent. The stigma is four-lobed to 

 rounded, and forms an expanded thickened mass on 

 top of the short style or of the ovary. It, as well as 

 the sepals, persists during maturation of the fruit. The 

 fruit when ripe is a dry glabrous and shining or a hairy 

 capsule that dehisces loculicidally into four valves. 

 The seeds vary in number, according to the species, from 

 100 to 500 in a capsule. Each is a light delicate elon- 

 gated thread-like body, due to great elongation of the 

 loose seed-coat on either end of the central mass. From 

 their extreme lightness they can readily be blown to 

 considerable distances, and this fact, along with the 

 direction of the prevailing monsoon winds, seems to 

 explain the distribution of the species along the western 

 and northwestern sides of the foothills or the moun- 

 tains where they mainly occur. 



The literature of the group has been recently sum- 



