198 LETTER XLVI. 



after they are once opened it usually dries up ; so 

 that the tales which are current about their being 

 sought by wild animals, especially monkeys, for the 

 water they contain, must be received with some sus- 

 picion. The use of the water is altogether unknown, 

 nor indeed are Botanists generally aware by what 

 apparatus it is secreted. There is, however, a pecu- 

 liar glandular structure in the inside of the pitchers, 

 which is the more probably connected with the secre- 

 tion, as it is not found on any other part of the 

 Nepenthes, nor, so far as I know, in any other plants. 

 If you observe attentively the inside of the lid of 

 the common garden species, or peep down into the 

 pitchers, you will find the surface distinctly marked by 

 inequalities, which give it somewhat the appearance 

 of shagreen. Placed under a microscope, the inequa- 

 lities prove to be caused by the presence of an infinite 

 number of oval, dark brown glands {Plate XLVII. 

 jig. C. a.), lying in the midst of the fine, compact, 

 cellular substance of the cuticle. The cells of the 

 latter are tolerably regular, lozenge-shaped hexagons, 

 except at the edges of the glands, where they become 

 perceptibly smaller and rounder {fig. C. b.); and, 

 what is very remarkable, the cuticle, instead of spread- 

 ing over the glands, leaves them quite naked, so that, 

 when it is stripped off* the leaf, it is riddled with re- 

 gular oval holes {fig. C. h. b. b.) corresponding with 

 the glands. If, instead of examining merely the 

 surface of the interior of the pitcher, you make a 

 section of it, perpendicular to the surface, and through 

 one of the glands {fig. D.), it will then be seen that 



