2124 



NEPENTHES 



NEPENTHES 



marized by the writer in his monograph 

 published as hft. 36 of Engler's "Pflanzen- 

 reich." A general description is there 

 given in English on pp. 2-26, while de- 

 tailed descriptions of the species and 

 hybrids follow in Latin. An interesting 

 account of the group is given by Veitch 

 and Burbidge in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc., 

 vol. 21 for 1897, on pp. 226-262. 



History and distribution. 



We owe the first notice of the group to 

 the French botanist Flacourt. In his "His- 

 tory of the Island of Madagascar" (1658) 

 he described the only native pitcher-plant 

 of that region as Anramitico, and inclined 

 to regard the pitcher as a flower or hollow 

 fruit. In 1679 Breyn described the only 

 Ceylon species as Bandura Zingalensium, 

 and he justly regarded it as a vegetable 

 wonder. Since that time other forms have 

 been discovered in the Seychelle Islands, 

 in southern China, in northeast India, in 

 the Philippines, the East Indian Islands 

 and in northeast Australia. But the head- 

 quarters of the genus extend from the 

 Malay Peninsula where are ten species 

 through Borneo and Sumatra, that contain 

 about twenty-four species, to New Guinea 

 and Australia in a southerly and the 

 Philippines in a northerly direction, where 

 are about twenty-six species. 



While nearly one-fourth of the species 

 grow in hot reeking swampy situations at 

 or near sea-level in the eastern tropics, 

 the larger number occur in moist ground 

 on the western and northwestern sides of 

 the mountains at elevations of 1,000 to 

 even 10,000 feet. Thus the lone and im- 

 pressive mountain, Kinabalu in north- 

 western Borneo, that rises to a height of 

 13,700 feet, overlooks a tropical shore 

 region that is rich in nepenthes. But, 

 from 3,000 to 10,000 feet, it harbors eight 

 species, some of which are the largest and 

 most gorgeously colored of the genus. The 

 zone of the mountain where the finest are 

 found extends from 6,000 to 10,000 feet 

 and Burbidge has graphically described 

 how this entire belt is almost continuously 

 shrouded in a dense mist, due to moisture 

 precipitation from meeting of the hot 

 lower current of air with the cold currents 

 from the mountain top. This moist drip- 

 ping climate seems eminently to suit the 

 forms found there, while all of the species 

 flourish best when kept in moist "steamy" 

 surroundings. Repeated attempts were 

 made, from 1750 onward, to introduce and 

 grow a few of the species from Madagas- 

 car, Ceylon, India and Borneo. But the 

 type of greenhouse of this earlier period, 

 and the method adopted in their cultiva- 

 tion combined to prevent success. From 

 1830 to 1860, however, so well had the 

 mode of culture advanced, that seedlings 

 were raised in the Edinburgh, London and 

 Chatsworth gardens, while the Veitch firm 

 that now had collectors like Lobb busy in 

 the native haunts of the genus, imported 

 living plants as well as seeds, both of 

 which they grew successfully. A great 

 impetus was given to the culture of 

 the group when gardeners like Dominy, 

 Taplin, Seden and Court succeeded in 

 crossing some of the species then culti- 



2462. Five distinct types of nepenthes. 

 Beginning from the top they are: 

 N. villosa, N. Lowii, N. Rajah, N. 

 Hookeriana, and N. Rafflesiana. The 

 first three belong to the famous Kina- 

 balu group. The fourth is the parent 

 of more hybrids than any other kind. 



vated, from 1850 to 1870, and in raising 

 hybrids therefrom. These hybrids seemed 

 often to combine good points of both par- 

 ents, while they, as well as many hybrids 

 since secured, are usually more easy of 

 cultivation, and form a greater showing 

 of the striking pitchers than does either 

 parent. But a new and very lively inter- 

 est was created in the group after Hooker 

 drew attention to the remarkable structure 

 of the pitchers, and their adaptation to the 

 catching and digestion of insect prey, as 

 set forth in his Belfast address before the 

 British Association in 1874. Collectors 

 like Curtis, Burke, and Burbidge were 

 commissioned by the Veitch firm to secure 

 every available type encountered from 

 Madagascar to Australia. Successful 

 methods of raising, growing and flowering 

 these had been devised; numerous new 

 hybrids appeared in England, America 

 and France from 1875 to 1900, while the 

 scientific interest in the group that was 

 stimulated by the writings of Darwin and 

 Hooker has caused an ever-increasing 

 demand for such plants in every typical 

 collection. 



A description of the nepenthes would be 

 very incomplete in such a work as the 

 present, did we not refer again to the his- 

 tory of their hybridization by man, and the 

 resulting production of hothouse types 

 that more than rival in beauty many of 

 the wild species, and which are, as already 

 indicated, more easy of cultivation than 

 are the parent forms. 



When Dominy first attempted to cross 

 Nepenthes, few fine forms were in cultiva- 

 tion, AT. Rafflesiana and N. Hookeriana 

 being the best. About 1858 or 1860 he 

 crossed flowers of the former with pollen 

 from what was probably N. gracilis from 

 Borneo. The resulting hybrids that were 

 sent out from the Veitch nurseries as N. 

 Dominii were at once a success under cul- 

 tivation, and stimulated further experi- 

 ment with species of the group. Dominy, 

 Seden, Court and Outram continued this in 

 England from 1860 to 1880, while Taplin, a 

 friend of the two latter, extended the 

 work in Such's collection. By the latter 

 period it had been proved that the species 

 of Nepenthes can be hybridized and re- 

 hybridized, at the same time remaining 

 fertile. The varied beauty and easy cul- 

 ture of the hybrids specially those of 

 Taplin, which were secured and distributed 

 mainly by Williams of London, rendered 

 the group more popular. An added stimu- 

 lus was given when Court raised N. Mas- 

 tersiana about 1880. But such striking 

 species as N. Veitchii, N. Northiana, N. 

 maxima, (N. Curtisii) and N. sanguinea 

 were all soon to hand, and so hybridizers 

 like Court, Tivey, Lindsay, and Gautier in 

 Europe, as well as Oliver and Siebrecht 

 in this country, produced novelties in 

 which the "blood" of three to four species 

 was blended. In France, Jarry-Desloges 

 and his gardener have obtained some 

 beautiful and complex hybrids, but 

 they have not as yet been distributed. 

 The pitchers of some of the above 

 when well grown are magnificent, the 

 plants are in no way more difficult of 

 culture than many of the well-known 



