60 



extensively employed for making the framework of their houses, 



exterior covering for the framework, which is either left naked or 

 plastered over with mud. It is also cut up into sections at the joints 

 and used for vessels of various kinds. A section of it several feet 

 long, from which the cross-partitions at the joints have been 

 removed, excepting that at the lowermost joint, is employed 

 in Haiti as a water-carrier. Water-pipes and many other articles 

 too numerous to mention here are made from it. The rate of 

 growth of the new canes is almost incredible. From actual 

 measurements made on this particular plant it has been found 

 that one of the canes grew sixty-five feet in ninety-five days, or 

 at the rate of about eight inches per day. Other specimens of 

 the grass family will be found in the aquatic house, no. 9. 



House No. 2. 



In this house will be found the following families : the East 

 Indian pitcher-plant family, Nepenthaceae, hanging from the 

 rafters on both sides, the only exogenous plants in the house ; 

 the pineapple family, Bromeliaceae, on both side benches, with 

 a few hanging from the rafters ; and the aroid family, Araceae, 

 confined to the central bench, and to the small bench at the end. 



The pitchers of the East Indian pitcher plants, Nepenthes, be- 

 longing to the Nepenthaceae, are said to secrete from gland-cells 

 a fluid which digests the insects which fall into the liquid contained 

 in them. These plants are largely climbers, growing upon trees, 

 and are often erroneously referred to by the general public as 

 orchids, with which they have nothing whatever to do, being mem- 

 bers of the large division of exogenous plants, while the orchids 

 belong to the other large division, the endogenous. The pitchers 

 are the petioles of the leaves modified ; what is called the blade or 

 broad flat part of an ordinary leaf is represented in these plants 

 by the lid-like organ over the pitcher, which, however, is not 

 movable, as is sometimes asserted by visitors to the collection. 



The pitchers are : 



sometimes erronec 



3 usly r 



eferred to as the flowers, 



but these are bor 



nein racemes or p 



panicle; 



; at the upper part of the 



stems. There an 



2 about thirty-five 



specie 



s of the genus Nepenthes, 



