244 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Nepenthes. Differences in the size and shape of the lamina or 

 blade, here conventionally called the leaf, are of frequent occur- 

 rence, and many of the species have their own characteristic 

 form. Generally the species with the smaller pitchers have the 

 smaller leaves, but the correlation of leaves and pitchers, as 

 regards size, is not always proportionate. The leaves are of 

 leathery texture, either quite smooth or studded with minute 

 hairs as in Veitchii ; they are for the most part narrowed at the 

 base into a winged petiole or foot-stalk, which in some species 

 partially embraces the stem from which it is produced. But by 

 far the most striking phenomenon connected with the leaves is 

 the prolongation of the midrib and the development at its 

 extremity of the wonderful organ which always excites the 

 admiration and curiosity of the beholder — I mean the ascidium 

 or pitcher to which I will now direct attention. 



Pitchers. — The pitchers assume a remarkable variety of form, 

 size, and colour, a variety that would be greatly enhanced by the 

 addition of the unintroduced species as shown by the dried 

 pitchers of Lowii, Edwardsiana, and villosa. Phyllamphora, 

 gracilis, ampullaria, and the hybrid Sedenii have pitchers less 

 or not much larger than a man's thumb ; on the other hand, 

 Northiana, Rafflesiana, bicalcarata, Veitchii, and sanguined 

 are remarkable for their large size and diversity of shape and 

 colour. Between these two groups may be intercalated a large 

 series of forms of both species and hybrids showing scarcely less 

 variability in form and colour. 



The origin of the pitchers of Nepenthes and their development 

 was investigated many years ago by Sir Joseph Hooker, and 

 described by him in a classic paper published in the " Transac- 

 tions of the Linnean Society," to which reference has been 

 already made. The principal facts observed during the examina- 

 tion led him to the conclusion that " the pitchers are modifica- 

 tions of a gland situated at the apex of the midrib of the leaf," 

 and various structural details of different stages of growth are 

 adduced in support of this view. To enter into these details 

 would be beyond the scope of this paper, but it is none the less 

 interesting to trace the development of these curious appendages 

 from the infant to the adult state of the plant. 



In the seedling plant the pitchers make their first appearance 

 in no very definable state at the apex of the first leaves formed 



