CARNIVOROUS PLANTS 287 



develops at its end a scale curiously like a cock's 

 comb, and this covers a slitlike opening in the enlarged 

 leaf-stalk, and this opening is defended on both margins 

 by an arrangement of rough points. This, however, is 

 an early stage of growth. By-and-by stems grow out 

 of the rosettes, and send forth leaves which are among 

 the great wonders of nature. These leaves develop in 

 this way: First, there appears a petiole, or leaf-stalk, 

 flattened and winged, shaped after the fashion of a lance 

 drawn to a long point. "The point gradually lengthens 

 until it becomes a long tendril, reaching out to the 

 branch of a near-by tree. Round that branch the 

 tendril coils snakelike, making it a support by which 

 the plant can climb, and also from which it can hang 

 its advertisement and death-trap. In the end this 

 coiling, snakelike petiole is enlarged at its extremity 

 until it assumes the appearance of a pitcher surmounted 

 by a lid. The pitcher is thus the hollow enlarged ter- 

 mination of the leaf-stalk; its lid is a diminutive leaf- 

 blade, highly modified. The plant produces numerous 

 leaves of this description; it uses other plants, dead or 

 alive, as supports, and so is able to display its gaily 

 coloured pendulous pitchers to great advantage. In 

 colour alone the pitcher is attractive to insects, but it 

 renders its attraction tenfold by discharging honey 

 round the rim and on the under side of the lid. Insects 

 are lured by the honey bait, and, in attempting to satisfy 

 their lust for sweet things, are apt to fall into the 

 "pitcher." Once there they cannot readily escape. 

 The inner surface of the pitcher is coated with wax, 

 smooth and slippery, and at the bottom of the vessel 

 there is a quantity of water in which captured insects 



