i88o-i88i.] 6l 



often more highly coloured than the rest of the pitcher, to 

 attract insects to the honey. Second — a conductive surface, 

 opaque, formed of glassy cells, produced into deflexed spinous 

 processes, which overlap like the tiles of a house, forming a 

 surface down which an insect slips, affording no foothold to 

 enable it to crawl up again. Third — a glandular surface, occupy- 

 ing a great portion of the cavity of the pitcher, formed by a 

 layer of epidermis, with sinuous cells studded with glands, and, 

 being smooth and polished, affords no foothold for an escaping 

 insect. Fourth — a detentive surface, occupying the lowest part 

 of the pitcher, and, in some cases, for nearly its whole length ; 

 it possesses no cuticle, and is studded with deflexed, rigid, glass- 

 like, needle-formed hairs, which converge towards the diminish- 

 ing cavity, so that an insect, if once among them, is effectually 

 detained. A near ally is the Darlingtonia, a still more wonderful 

 plant, found on the Sierra Nevada of California, at an elevation 

 of 5,000 feet. The plant bears large sub-erect pitchers, with 

 the tube twisted, the lip produced into a large inflated hood 

 that completely arches over a very small entrance to the cavity 

 of the pitcher. A singular orange-red, flabby, two-lobed organ 

 hangs from the end of the hood, right in front of the entrance, 

 which is smeared with honey on its inner surface. These 

 pitchers are crammed with large insects, especially moths, which 

 decompose in them, and result in a putrid mass, and various 

 insects, too wary to be entrapped themselves, drop their eggs 

 into the open mouths of the pitchers to take advantage of the 

 accumulation of food. The old pitchers are found to contain 

 living larvae and maggots, and various insectivorous birds slit 

 open the pitchers with their beaks to get at their contents, and 

 this is probably the origin of the belief that the pitchers supply 

 water to the birds. There are two species of insects which are 

 proof against their syren influences, and which in turn oblige 

 them, either directly or indirectly, to support them. The first 

 is Xanthoptera semicrocea, a little moth, which walks with 

 perfect impunity over the inner surface of the pitcher, which 

 proves so treacherous to all other insects. It is found in pairs 



