298 



POPULAR, GARDEN BOTANY. 



NEPENTHES. 



As this Order of curious plants requires, like Orchids, 

 much heat and moisture, the amateur may try to succeed 

 in their cultivation, and he will be amply repaid for his care 

 by possessing specimens of one of the most curious produc- 

 tions of the Vegetable Kingdom. They are bog- plants, and 

 in the stove in this country are grown in a peat-soil mixed 

 with sphagnum, and kept very clamp : the pots should be 

 of a good size. JV". distillatoria was the first introduced, in 

 1789, from Ceylon, and is called the "Pitcher Plant/' from 

 the curious appendage it has at the ends of the leaves in the 

 form of a pitcher with a lid, and which contains a liquid 

 distilled from the plant. N. Rafflesiana, from the Philip- 

 pines, has the pitchers spotted with crimson, and they are 

 of a large size. N. amjpullacea is from Manilla ; N. al/jo- 

 marginata has a little band of wool round the edge of the 

 pitcher. 



Mr. Adams, the assistant-surgeon of the ' Samarang/ 

 describes the Nepenthes as growing abundantly in Borneo, 

 where they are called " Monkey-cups " by the Malays. Pie 

 writes : — "The J¥. distillatoria is a very common plant in 

 the Sarawak territory, where it may be seen, with its curi- 



f. 



