THE PITCHER PLAINTS. 



67 



is grown it is better to keep them apart. 

 Though sometimes succeeding in pots, 

 they are best grown as basket-plants in 

 a mixture of peat-fibre and sphagnum 

 moss, and with heat and moisture at all 

 times, but most when in active growth. 

 Shade, and air on the hottest days only, 

 must be regulated according to weather 

 and season,and varies somewhat with dif- 

 ferent kinds ; dryness and cold draughts 

 mustbe avoided, nor should the tempe- 

 rature ever fall much below 70 degrees 

 even in winter. A little very weak cow- 

 manure is sometimes given to strongly 

 rooted plants while in full growth, but 

 unless used with great care such stimu- 

 lants do harm, and the plants usually 

 grow well enough without such feeding. 

 Vigorous kinds will make 3 to 4 feet 

 of growth, bearing, perhaps a score 

 of pitchers in a season, but their stems 

 are not allowed to run, being stopped 

 in order to induce the finest pitchers 

 which spring around the base. When 

 half ripened, the growths so removed 

 maybe used as cuttings, which root in a 

 high and evenly moist temperature, but 

 they need careful handling until well 

 established, the roots being very tender 

 and in some kinds slow in forming. Plants 

 may also be raised from seed, which ger- 

 minates in six or eight weeks when quite 

 fresh, but is much longer when imported 

 — the young plants forming at first a 

 rosette ofsmall leavesat thetips ofwhich 

 rudimentary pitchers appear. With suc- 

 cessive leaves these gain in size and im- 

 portance,are gradually separated further 

 and further from the blade by the length- 

 ening midrib, and at length, when fully 

 characterised pitchers are formed, they 



Wild Kinds and 

 Hybrids. 



appear only after the complete develop- 

 ment of the leaf. 



Most of the wild kinds have been 

 introduced at various times, but of these 

 a certain number have 

 perished, their places 

 being taken by crosses 

 made between such kinds as are most 

 easily grown ; among these are some of 

 the finest kinds, now long known in gar- 

 dens, and their hybrids tend to become 

 increasingly at home under glass. These 

 seedlings, for their beauty and ease of 

 growth, are therefore of the first import- 

 ance, and have replaced such of the more 

 delicate species as need greater care. The 

 variety of form and colour found in these 

 crosses is remarkable, seedlings of the 

 same parents showing much variation 

 not only in detail, but in vigour,freedom, 

 and endurance. Though by no means an 

 invariable rule, experienced growers ad- 

 mit that the kinds bearing pitchers that 

 are much blotched and highly coloured 

 are usually more robust and of easier cul- 

 ture than green or pale-pitchered plants. 



Beside the two last imported kinds, 

 N. Sa?ideria?ia from Sumatra, and the 

 strangely formed N. ven- 

 New Kinds. tricosa from the Philip- 

 pines, both of which are 

 fully described below, Messrs. Veitch 

 have added to the number of new plants 

 by two fine hybrids raised by their grower 

 Mr. Tivey, from crosses between kinds 

 in the collection at Chelsea. Both are 

 of the same parentage and of mixed de- 

 scent, being a cross between Ns. mixta 

 and Dicksoniana — themselves both h y- 

 brid, coming from four distinct species. 

 Despite their relationship the plants are 



