286 ANOMALIES OF DEVELOPEMENT. CHAP. V, 



the nostrils, even in passing near the plant. Hence 

 Sir J. E. Smith infers that the growth of the plant 

 is perhaps benefited by means of the air evolved by 

 the dead flies, which the water has been intended 

 to tempt, and the leaves to entrap and retain.* This 

 ingenious conjecture is no doubt sufficiently plau- 

 sible as far as the plant may be affected; but cannot 

 be regarded as quite satisfactory till such time as it 

 shall have been shown that the health of the plant 

 is injured when insects are prevented from approach- 

 ing it. 



AndNe- The celebrated Nepenthes distillatoria exhibits 

 Sistiiiato- a l so an anomaly similar to that of Sarracenia, but 

 more striking if possible. The leaf, which is itself 

 lanceolate, terminates at the summit in a thread- 

 shaped pedicle supporting a pitcher-shaped process, 

 surmounted with a lid, and holding an ounce or two 

 of a fluid which appears to be secreted from the 

 leaf, and to be intended as a lure to insects, which 

 gain admission either by the spontaneous opening of 

 the lid, or by forcibly raising it themselves. The 

 consequence is that they fall into the fluid and are 

 drowned, no insect being capable of living in it 

 except a certain small squilla or shrimp with a pro- 

 tuberant back, which, according to Rumphius, 

 sometimes crawls into it and can live there.-}- To 

 this phenomenon Sir J. E. Smith applies the same 

 explication as above, which is of course liable to the 

 same objection. 



* Smith's Introduction, p. 196". f Ibid. p. 197. 



4 



