74 



REMARKABLE FLO WERS. 



[CHAP. 



the development of leaf is so remarkable we reserved 

 a place for them here. With reference to this species 

 there has been considerable 

 discussion as to whether the 

 pitcher or the pitcher-cover 

 constituted the true leaf- 

 blade, or whether again the 

 leaf-blade was not to be found 

 in the leafy- portion of the 

 stalk. It seems, however, to 

 be now satisfactorily settled 

 that the latter is the case ; 

 that which appears like a leaf 

 is the leaf, whilst the pitcher 

 is merely an enlarged modi- 

 fication of a gland at the 

 tip of the mid-rib. One 

 species (Nepenthes rajah\ a 

 native of Borneo, has a pitcher 

 twelve inches long by six 

 broad, and a blade eighteen 

 inches long by eight broad. 



At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society, 

 Dr. Maxwell T. Masters brought forward a specimen 

 example of a Pitcher-plant (Nepenthes bicalccirata) 

 from Borneo, and he read a note thereon from Mr. 

 Burbidge. It seems these pitchers are perfect traps 

 to creeping insects, by reason of the incurved ridges 

 round the throat of the pitcher. To get safely at the 

 prisoners, a species of black ant ingeniously perforates 

 the stalk, and tunnelling upwards, thus provides an 

 inroad and exit to the sumptuous fare of dead and 



