28o 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
SOME NEW NEPENTHES, WITH 
A COLOURED PLATE OF N. 
SANDERIANA.* 
These quaintly beautiful plants of which 
we have recently published a detailed 
account (vol. 2, pp. 65 and in) have 
of late received much attention from 
some of our leading botanists with a 
view to a better understanding of their 
complicated life-processes. Chemical 
analysis has shed considerablelight upon 
the function of the urns, and goes to 
show that the fluid which they contain 
undergoes important changes between 
the time of its first secretion and the 
withering of the mature pitcher. There 
is still much to be cleared up in re- | 
searches so delicate and complicated, j 
and which it is impossible to follow 
under the best conditions — that of 
studying the plants in their wild state. 
One of the first authorities upon Nepen- 
thes has undertaken in the near future 
to give our readers the results of this 
work, so for the moment we content 
ourselves with offering a finelj^rawn 
plate of a newly-imported species, with 
notes upon such new kinds as have ap- 
peared within recent ntonths. \ 
This new kind has beeh coUqcted in 
Sumatra for Mr. Sander of S^Albans, 
after whom it is named. It cj^ms near 
to N. Rajffiesia7ia in the shape and size 
of its urns, though these arVmon 
liant in colouring and the planHfrmore 
compact growth. The pitcher is shown 
life-size, with broad boldly-fringed 
wings which are more finely coloured 
than the body of the pitcher itself. N. 
ventricosa^ a second newly- imported 
species from the Philippines is remark- 
able in the shape of its pitchers, which, 
from a broad base and a wide mouth, 
contract to a narrow waist. These singu- 
lar urns are about 5 inches long and of 
stout leathery texture, with a smooth 
surface and no wings, and their colour 
a clear pale green varied only by the 
rose-coloured rim. The lid is rather 
small as compared with the mouth of 
the pitcher, evenly rounded, and well 
tilted upwards. A third new species, 
recently named and described by Mr. 
W. B. Hemsley of Kew, is N. Macfar- 
la7iei from the Malay Peninsula, where 
it is found growing at an elevation of 
5,000 feet. Its pitchers are remarkable 
for their prominent honey-glands, min- 
gled with stiff bristly hairs upon the 
under-side of thelid. As so often happens 
in Nepenthes the perfect pitchers are 
of two sorts, those first formed being 
snp<ffl,ltth very narrow unfringed wings 
aiid a sinple narrow rim ; while those 
formed on the upper part of the plant 
— which climbs to a height of 1 5 feet 
— are m'Qch larger, measuring at times 
as much ai 1 2 inches from their base of 
the tube 
ing lid, 
lids 2 i 
bristle, 
spe. 
the tip of the erect-stand- 
rims half an inch wide and 
^s across, and beset with 
the under side. So far this 
seems to be unknown in this 
coi 
Ltry, 
save 
dried 
state. 
he already bewildering choice of 
hybrid Nepenthes has been added to 
by various named seedlings, the most 
important in this country being Nepe7i- 
thes F. W. Moore ^ shown by Messrs. 
Veitch of Chelsea, and resulting from 
the same cross (N. mixta x N. Dickson- 
which gave the handsome new 
tana] 
From a drawing by H. G. Moon in the Nurseries, St. Albans. 
