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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



aerobic and putrefactive bacteria greatly assist in preparing the 

 insect soup ready for absorption and assimilation. It is peculiar 

 that though wasps are sometimes, even if rarely, caught by 

 Nepenthes, I have never seen nor heard of a pitcher ever contain- 

 ing either hive or humble bees amongst its captures. He begged 

 to refer those who wished for fuller details to Dr. Vine's paper on 

 " The Physiology of Pitcher Plants," in Journal of the Boyal 

 Horticultural Society, Vol. XXI., Part I., p. 92. 



In referring to the native climatic conditions under which 

 Nepenthes Eajah, N. Edwardsiana, N. Lowii, N. Villosa, and N. 

 Harryana* are found, Mr. Burb'idge was peculiarly at home, 

 he having twice ascended the Great Granite Mountain of Kina 

 Balou in N.-W. Borneo, on which alone they exist. On the 

 north, or Marie Parie, spur of this mountain, N. Eajah and N. 

 Edwardsiana are found at 4,000 feet elevation, but on the great 

 southern spur, in a clearer and more open situation, the species 

 occur in the following order : — N. Lowii, epiphytal on trees at 

 5,000 to 7,000 ft. ; N. Edwardsiana, 7,000 to 8,000 ft., epiphytal on 

 low mossy trees; N. Rajah, 8,000 to 9,000 ft., terrestrial in 

 yellow loam and decomposed granite, with its great basal 

 pitchers resting, and often buried, in dead leaves, moss, and other 

 detritus or debris. N. Villosa (terrestrial) and N. Harryana 

 (epiphytal, wild hybrid) are both found together with N. 

 Edwardsiana at about 8,000 ft. elevation; and N. Villosa extends 

 up to 10,000 or 11,000 ft., being in some places found along with 

 the most elevated plants of N. Rajah. 



The two last-named species are terrestrial, while N. Lowii, 

 N. Edwardsiana, and N. Harryana are more often found in an 

 epiphytal state, their long stems wreathed about the branches of 

 low trees, rooting here and there in the wet moss that clothes 

 them. N. Rajah bears the largest and most capacious urns, half- 

 buried in dead leaves and moss, their lower ends resting on the 

 wet ground. N. Edwardsiana has pitchers 10 in. to 23 in. in 

 length, elegantly cylindrical, and of a clear light brick-red colour, 

 with green base and a pink frilling of vertical rounded plates 



* Named in compliment to Mr. Harry J. Yeitch, who has ever taken the 

 greatest interest in the importation and culture of Nepenthes of all kinds. 



N. Harryana is a natural hybrid between N. Edwardsiana x N. 

 Villosa, discovered by Mr. Burbid^e in 1878, and so named by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, of Kew. It is the only wild hybrid known, and is exactly inter- 

 mediate between its parents. 



