136 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



genera Roridula and Dyblis, the former a South African plant 

 and the latter a native of the tropical parts of Australia. These 

 are all usually recognised as " insectivorous plants," and 

 amongst these eleven genera there are a great number of 

 species and almost innumerable varieties, many of the latter 

 being natural hybrids ; indeed, it is quite possible that, when 

 our knowledge of hybridisation increases, many of the so-called 

 species will prove to be only natural hybrids. 



The Australian " Pitcher Plant" (Cephalotus foUicularis) 

 is a native of King George's Sound, and, although introduced to 

 cultivation nearly seventy years ago, it is still looked upon as a 

 great curiosity ; it is also rather a rare plant in its native home. 

 I have seen this plant, when under cultivation and covered with 

 a bell-glass to keep out all flies and other insects, growing very 

 much stronger, and producing pitchers of a far greater size and 

 darker in colour, than ever I have seen in the case of recently 

 imported plants of it, thus, in my opinion, proving that the 

 greatest and best results with these plants are obtained by feed- 

 ing them at the roots. In a wild state the plants, in all pro- 

 bability, grow in very poor soil indeed, and are then dependent, 

 to a great extent, upon the supply of nutriment which they 

 obtain from the flies and insects which they catch ; but under 

 high cultivation the roots alone will take up all that is necessary, 

 and the extraneous supply absorbed through the pitchers is no 

 longer needed. 



Dioncea muscipula ("Venus's Fly-trap") maybe taken as 

 another example of precisely the same thing, as plants well fed 

 at the roots, and from which all the insects have been excluded, 

 I have always found to be the strongest, healthiest, and best, the 

 leaves remaining in perfection and beauty much longer than 

 any I have ever seen growing in their native habitat. I am not, 

 however, able to say which set of plants would produce the most 

 and the best seed. This Dionaea is a native of the sandy 

 savannas of the eastern parts of North Carolina, and is noted 

 for the extraordinary irritability of its leaves. These leaves 

 have long foot-stalks and are bilobed at the top, each lobe being 

 beset with a row of bristles around the edge. On the inner side 

 of each lobe there are three hair-like projections, which, when 

 irritated by an insect or touched by anything, will quickly cause 

 the two lobes to close, like an ordinary rat-trap, and they will 



