NEPENTHES. 



269 



Many absurd stories are in circulation, respecting the 

 nses of the curious ascidia, or pitchers, developed at the 

 extremities of the leaves of these plants. The most popular 

 amongst these, describes how the plants ai;e endowed with 

 such extraordinary vitality as to enable them to grow in 

 arid sandy deserts, where nothing else in the shape of 

 vegetation exists ; that they have the power of distilling 

 water, and filling their pitchers and closing the lid down 

 when the vessel is full ; and that birds, animals of various 

 kinds, and even man is accustomed to resort to them to 

 quench" their thirst with the cool and pure water found 

 therein. This is, however, nothing but a pretty fancy — 

 tha fact is they grow upon boggy swampy soils, and 

 cannot exist long in an arid atmosphere. 



The Nepenthes are dioecious plants : that is, the flowers 

 ara not perfect, and each sex is produced upon a separate 

 plant, so that, as frequently happens, either one sex only 

 may exist, even in large collections of these plants, or one 

 may only be in flower at the same time. To this must be 

 attributed the non-appearance of garden hybrids until 

 recently, for as the cultivation of these plants has greatly 

 increased of late years, more opportunities have occurred 

 for hybridising arid cross-breeding. 



Few people have had the pleasure of raising N&pentlies 

 from seed, on account of the seed being so short-lived, that 

 if not sent home immediately it is gathered, and sown at 

 once, its vitality is gone. This, in conjunction with the 

 fact that home-grown seed is very rare, causes it to fall 

 ito the lot of but few to accomplish or to engage in this 

 task, but it is fraught with the greatest interest, and gives 

 rise to more hopes and fears than in the case of any other 

 .class of plants which we have attempted to raise from 

 seeds. The seeds of the Nepenthes appear to be about half 

 s2 



