292 Pitcher Plants. [March . 
principally found in these.tubes are flyers, moths, etc., and in at 
tracting these the peculiar fish-like projections are doubtless of 
great use. Besides being conspicuous from their size, they are 
brightly colored and peculiarly mottled. The moth, attracted by 
the conspicuous appendages, alights and feeds on the honey. En 
tering the tube, as it is almost sure to do, and afterward attempt 
ing to escape, it is prevented by the over-arching hood and falls 
into the tube. Here it finds the same sort of hairs described in 
Sarracenia, and is wedged deeper and deeper into the tube, to be 
finally drowned in the fluid secreted at the bottom. The peculiar 
twist is probably to wedge the insect more firmly into the tube, 
and make it more impossible than ever for it to find its way tothe 
top. The peculiar white spots on the arch, and at the back, 
are supposed to be for the purpose of misleading the insect 
The sun-light striking through them would make it appear a more ; 
conspicuous opening than the real one below, and by striking theit 
heads against these simulated skylights they would be more likely 
to be knocked into the tube. : 
The flowers are solitary at the top of a bracted scape, of the 
color of the flap of the pitcher, and the organs are arranged it 
such a manner as to entirely prevent it being fertilized except by 
the aid of insects. Dr. Hooker, in speaking of these flowers, 1 
marks that he was struck “with a remarkable analogy betwee? 
. the arrangement and coloring of the parts of the leaf and of the ; 
flower. The petals are of the same color as the flap of the pitches , 
and between each pair of petals is a hole (formed by 4 notch 
the opposed margins of each), leading to the stamens and shee : 
Turning to the pitcher, the relation of its flap to its entrance 8 
somewhat similar. Now, we know that colored petals are SF 
cially attractive organs, and that the object of their color is ® 
bring insects to feed on the pollen or nectar, and in this ar ; 
means of the hole to fertilize the flower; and that the object f 
the flap and its sugar is also to attract insects, but witha very ™ 
entresult, cannot be doubted. Itis hence conceivable thatthis pii 
lures insects to its flowers for one object, and feeds them Wi 1 
uses them to fertilize itself, and that, this accomplished, S90" Pe 
its benefactors are thereafter lured to its pitchers for the sak 
feeding itself!” (Nature, vol. x., 1874, p. 370). o 
Who can deny now that we have not to deal here with ee da 
ous order of plants? Every member of it has some Pe" = 
