100 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



present. But there remains one point which requires further 

 investigation, and that is as to how the pitchers come to contain 

 liquid. Whilst it is true that in those pitchers in which the orifice 

 is not protected by the hood, the liquid which they contain may 

 be rainwater, the observations of Mellichamp suggest the pro- 

 bability of a secretion of liquid by the pitcher. 



The pitchers of Darlingtonia and Heliamphora so closely re- 

 semble those of Sarracenia in structure, that there can be no 

 doubt that their function is essentially the same in all these genera. 

 It will not, therefore, be necessary to enter upon a separate con- 

 sideration of these two genera. 



We pass now to the consideration of the pitchers of 

 Nepenthes. The early observers duly noted the frequent 

 presence of liquid in the pitchers, and they do not seem to have 

 doubted that the liquid was secreted by the pitchers ; the preva- 

 lence of this conviction is evidenced by the fact that the first 

 specific name given to the genus by Linnaeus was Nepenthes 

 distillatoria. The idea was equally prevalent that the liquid was 

 provided to assuage the thirst of man, and possibly of other 

 animals also. Thus Linnaeus, in his " Flora zeylanica " (1747), 

 quoting from Grimm, speaks of the pitcher as " Digitis presso 

 dissiliente aquam dulcem, limpidam, amabilem, confortantem, 

 frigidam suppeditantia ad necessarium hominis usum, ita 

 ut interdum sex vel octo receptacula tantum aquae continent 

 quantum unius hominis sitim cum maxima delectatione bene 

 extinguere possit." So much, apparently, had this view im- 

 pressed Breyne, that he named the plant after the Nepenthes 

 of the Greeks, the assuager of sorrow ; and Linnaeus, in 

 establishing Breyne's name, gave way to the following outburst 

 of enthusiasm (" Hort. Cliffort.," p. 431, 1737) : — * Assumsi 

 synonymon Breynii, cum enim si haec non Helenae nepenthes, 

 certe Botanicis omnibus erit. Quis Botanicorum longissimo 

 itinere profcctus, si mirabilem banc plantam reperiret, non 

 admiratione rapcretur, totus attonitus, praeteritorum malo- 

 rum oblitus, mirificam Creatoris manum dum obstupescens 

 adspiceret ? " 



Here the matter was allowed to rest for a considerable time, 

 little attention being paid to it until well on in the present 

 century, when some notes on the liquid contents of the pitchers 

 of two species were given in the " Botanical Magazine," with 



