112 REPORT—1874. 
neighbouring objects, and thus aiding the plant in climbing, sometimes to a great 
height, in the forest. 
In most species the pitchers are of two forms, one appertaining to the young, the 
other to the old state of the plant, the transition from one form to the other being 
gradual, Those of the young state are shorter and more inflated ; they have broad 
fringed longitudinal wings on the outside, which are probably guides to lead insects 
to the mouth ; the lid is smaller and more open, and the whole interior surface is 
covered with secreting-glands. Being formed near the root of the plant, these 
pitchers often rest on the ground ; and in species which do not form leaves near the 
root, they are sometimes suspended from stalks which may be fully a yard long, 
and which bring them to the ground. In the older state of the plant the pitchers 
are usually much longer, narrower, and less inflated, trumpet-shaped, or even coni- 
cal; the wings also are narrower, less fringed, or almost absent. The lid is larger 
and slants over the mouth, and only the lower part of the pitcher is covered with 
secreting-glands, the upper part presenting a tissue analogous to the conducting- 
tissue of Sarracenia, but very different anatomically. The difference in structure of 
these two forms of pitcher, if considered in reference to their different positions on 
the plant, forces the conclusion on the mind, that the one form is intended for 
pround game, the other for winged game. In all cases the mouth of the pitcher 
is furnished with a thickened corrugated rim, which serves three purposes—it 
strengthens the mouth and keeps it distended, it secretes honey (at least in all 
the species I haye examined under cultivation, for I do not find that any other 
observer has noticed the secretion of honey by Nepenthes), and it is in various spe- 
cies developed into afunnel-shaped tube that descends into the pitcher and prevents 
the escape of insects, or into a row of incurved hooks that are in some cases strong 
enough to retain a small bird, should it, when in search of water or insects, thrust 
its body beyond a certain length into the pitcher. 
In the interior of the pitcher of Nepenthes there are three principal surfaces—an — 
attractive, conductive, and a secretive surface; the detentive surface of Sarracenia 
being represented by the fluid secretion, which is here invariably present at all 
stages of growth of the pitcher. 
The attractive surfaces of Nepenthes are two, those, namely, of the rim of the 
pitcher and of the under surface of the lid, which is provided in almost every 
species with honey-secreting glands, often in great abundance. These glands 
consist of masses of cells, each imbedded in a cavity of the tissue of the lid and 
encircled by a guard-ring of glass-like cellular tissue. As in Sarracenia, the lid 
and mouth of the pitcher are more highly coloured than any other part, with the 
view of attracting insects to their honey. It is a singular fact that the only species 
lmown to me that wants these honey-glands on the lid is the W. ampullaria, whose 
lid, unlike that of the other species, is thrown back horizontally. The secretion of 
honey on a lid so placed would tend to lure insects away from the pitcher instead 
of into it. 
From the mouth to a variable distance down the pitcher is an opaque glaucous 
‘surface, resembling in colour and appearance the glandular surface of Sarracenia, 
and like it affording no foothold to insects, but otherwise wholly different ; it is 
formed of a fine network of cells, covered with a glass-like cuticle, and studded 
with minute reniform transverse excrescences. 
The rest of the pitcher is entirely occupied with the secretive surface, which 
consists of a cellular floor crowded with circular glands in inconéeivable numbers. 
Each gland precisely resembles a honey-gland of the lid, and is contained in a 
pocket of the same nature, but semicircular, with the mouth downwards, so that 
the secreted fluid all falls to the’ bottom of the pitcher. In Nepenthes Rafflesiana 
three thousand such glands occur on a square inch of the inner surface of the 
Bosch I have ascertained that, as was indeed to be expected, they secrete the 
uid which is contained in the bottom of the pitcher before this opens, and that 
the fluid is always acid. 
The fluid, though invariably present, occupies a comparatively small portion of 
the secretive surface of the pitcher. When the fluid is emptied out of a fully formed 
pitcher that has not received animal matter, it collects again, but in comparatively 
very small quantities; and the formation goes on for many days, and to some 
