$82 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 501. 



ance, became more and more unconventional, until most 

 of them utilized various kinds of empty tobacco bags. Not 

 long ago I received a side light upon this subject from a 

 much-traveled English woman, who said: "I was once 

 for several days on a steamer with Von Mueller. He was 

 going off to a camp in some wilderness and was dressed 

 like a laborer. He sat on the deck all day, looking at the 

 sky and ocean and smoking a little old black pipe, with 

 tobacco bags in each of his pockets. He seemed very 

 good-tempered, but he did not strike me as clever, though 

 I heard he was a famous man." 



A picture of the Baron in his Sunday best, decorated with 

 medals of honor, hangs in the botanical department of the 

 University of California, and a lovable face it is. But I 

 like best to think of him in old clothes, smoking the little 

 pipe, and going off into the wonderful Australian forests. 

 Niies. calif. Charles H. Shinn. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Nepenthes. 



MR. HARRY J. VEITCH read a valuable paper on 

 Nepenthes at the last meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society. A selection of species and hybrids was 

 exhibited from the famous Chelsea collection, which for 

 many years has been admittedly the best in England, if 

 not in the world. Messrs. Veitch & Sons were the first 

 among the nurserymen to collect these plants, and most of 

 the hybrids now in cultivation were raised in their nursery. 



Commencing with the history of the genus, Mr. Veitch 

 traced the discovery of the various species. The first 

 known was Nepenthes Madagascariensis, a comparatively 

 unattractive species, which singularly enough was one of 

 the last to be introduced, Messrs. Veitch having obtained 

 plants of it for the first time in 1878. About thirty species 

 are known and these are found principally in Malaya. The 

 pre-Linneean name for the genus was Mirabilis, Linnaeus, 

 who knew only N. distillatoria, renaming it Nepenthes, 

 "Freeing from Grief," and stating that "if this is not 

 Helen's Nepenthe it certainly will be for all botanists." 



Nepenthes Rafflesiana was introduced to Kew in 1845. 

 This was followed by the closely allied N. Hookeri, intro- 

 duced by Messrs. Low & Co. in 1847. Then Messrs. Veitch 

 sent a collector in search of Nepenthes, and various species 

 were thus obtained by them. The discovery of four won- 

 derful species in Borneo by Sir Hugh Low led to the prepa- 

 ration of a classical paper on Nepenthes by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, which was published in the Transactions of the 

 Linncean Society in 1859. A few years later these and other 

 insectivorous plants were the subject of Sir Joseph's Presi- 

 dential Address to the Linnaean Society, and this, with 

 Darwin's work on the same subject, gave these plants an 

 interest for horticulturists and for the laity which they have 

 ever since maintained. 



The four largest species are Nepenthes Rajah, N. Edwards- 

 iana, N. Lowii and N. villosa. These are all wild on the 

 mountain of Kina Balu, in Borneo, where, according to 

 Mr. Burbidge, the natural conditions as regards temperature 

 and moisture are somewhat peculiar. This may account 

 for the failure of cultivators with three of these species. 

 The only one successfully cultivated so far is N. Rajah, and 

 this is only grown at Glasnevin, where Mr. Moore has 

 always kept it in a cool house along with Masdevallias. 

 A pitcher taken from his plant, shown by Mr. Veitch, aston- 

 ished everybody by its size, vigor and rich colors ; it would 

 probably hold a pint of water. Another species, N. Ed- 

 wardsiana, has pitchers twenty-two inches long and capa- 

 ble of holding two quarts of water. The size of these 

 pitchers can be understood when it is stated that a drowned 

 rat was found in one of them by Sir Hugh Low. 



By the year 1872 ten species of Nepenthes had been suc- 

 cessfully established in gardens here and four Hybrids had 

 been raised. The first of these was Dominiana, raised in 

 Messrs. Veitch's nursery in 1862. The introduction of N. 



sanguinea, N. Veitchii, N. Curtisii, N. Burkei and N. North- 

 iana has added considerably to the popularity of the genus, 

 and as numerous hybrids have been raised from these the 

 variety of pitchers has been greatly increased. The best 

 of all hybrids is N. Mastersiana, raised by Messrs. Veitch 

 & Sons from sanguinea and Khasyana. It is easily culti- 

 vated, is dwarf in habit, pitchers freely, and the pitchers 

 are large and of a dull crimson color. Next to this come 

 N. mixta and N. Dicksoniana, the latter a hybrid between 

 N. Rafflesiana and N. Veitchii. N. Morganise, a hybrid of 

 American origin, is also highly appreciated here. 



There are, according to Mr. Veitch, over forty hybrids 

 enumerated, but some of these are merely variations of the 

 same hybrid, much variation being shown by plants out 

 of the same batch of seedlings. It is probable also that 

 some of these so-called hybrids have been obtained by 

 crossing varieties with each other. The introduction of N. 

 Northiana was due to the enterprise of Mr. Veitch, who on 

 seeing in 1880 a painting of it which Miss North had made 

 from a plant brought to her by a native when in north- 

 eastern Borneo, obtained particulars from her and des- 

 patched a collector for it. He found it growing below the 

 ledge of a cliff and succeeded in getting home seeds of it. 

 Mr. Veitch says it has proved one of the most tractable of 

 the Nepenthes under cultivation and one of the handsomest. 

 A recent introduction from the Seychelles, namely, N. Per- 

 villei, was exhibited from Kew, where it has been raised 

 from seeds. It is remarkable for the length of the pitcher- 

 stalks and for the elegance and rich coppery-red color of 

 its pitchers. This species has always been a special desid- 

 eratum with botanists as well as cultivators, and it has 

 taken twenty-five years to get it successfully introduced. 

 Plants of Nepenthes rarely recover from the effects of a 

 long ocean voyage, while the seeds are so easily damaged 

 that one may try time after time and fail. 



The seeds ripen in about three months after fertilization, 

 and germinate in about six weeks. The first leaves after 

 the cotyledons invariably bear tiny pitchers. Some species 

 are said to bear only tiny pitchers and no leaf-blade when 

 young. With good treatment plants twelve months old 

 have leaves four inches long and pitchers an inch long. 

 The stronger-growing sorts grow from three to four feet in 

 a season and produce from twelve to eighteen pitchers. 

 The best pitchers are produced by basal shoots or short 

 plants, and for this reason cultivators prevent the plants 

 from making long shoots by pinching the tops out of them 

 when about a foot long. If allowed to grow the stems will 

 attain a length of twenty or even thirty feet. The pitchers 

 developed on long stems are smaller, narrow at the base 

 and less highly colored than those on short stems. There 

 is not much variation in the leaf characters of the genus, 

 some being longer and narrower in the blade than others. 

 They are all strap-shaped, leathery in texture, green, and 

 the pitchers are suspended on stalks formed by the pro- 

 longation of the midrib of the leaf. This stalk performs the 

 duties of a tendril, twisting round a twig in precisely the 

 same way. By this means the plants in a wild state suc- 

 ceed in climbing up into sunlight. It is noteworthy that 

 the species which produce the largest pitchers grow at a 

 high altitude where the conditions are subtropical or even 

 temperate. According to Mr. Burbidge these species are 

 always terrestrial, comparatively short in stem, and their 

 pitchers usually rest on the ground. The same authority 

 stated that in Borneo these plants are known as Monkeys' 

 Cooking-pots and that the natives drink the liquid found 

 inside the pitchers before they open, as a cure for indiges- 

 tion. All the species are insular in habitat, and they are 

 mostly local, the exception being Nepenthes gracilis, which 

 is found all over Malasia. 



The following selection of species and hybrids repre- 

 sents what are here considered the best for the garden : 

 Species : Burkei, Curtisii, distillatoria, hirsuta, Northiana, 

 Rafflesiana, sanguinea and Veitchii. Hybrids : Amesiana, 

 Dicksoniana, Mastersiana, mixta, Morganise, Sedeni and 

 the new Tiveyi. This last was shown for the first time 



