NEPENTHES. 



227 



matters relating to Nepenthes have been so frequently and fully 

 treated by others, that on the present occasion they may be 

 altogether omitted, or only incidentally mentioned. 



Probably no vegetable production more excited the wonder 

 of early travellers in the eastern equatorial region than the 

 Nepenthes, and the curious speculations indulged in respecting 

 the purpose of the pitchers may pardonably provoke a smile from 

 us who, with the aids and appliances of modern science, pride 



Fig. 43. — Nepenthes greatly reduced to show habit of growth (Gardeners' Chronicle). 



ourselves on possessing a more accurate knowledge of their 

 structure and functions. The oldest recorded intimation of the 

 existence of these remarkable plants occurs in the " Histoire de 

 la grande He de Madagascar," by Etienne de Flacourt, published 

 in 1661, a book now numbered among the curiosities of literature 

 and still preserved in national libraries, but to which I have not 

 sought access. I therefore quote the following on the authority 

 of Dr. Giinther Beck, as given by him in his excellent mono- 

 graph of the genus Nepenthes, recently published in the Wiener 

 Illustrirte- Garten Zeitung : — Flacourt described and figured a 

 Nepenthes, which had been discovered by Comerson, the first 



