CEPHALOTUS FOLLTCULARIS. 
397 
with purple, and are nearly of the same tex- 
ture as the leaves, but somewhat more mem- 
branous ; the mouth is contracted, horse-shoe- 
shaped, annulated, and crested with several 
deep sharp vertical annuli of a dark purple 
colour ; the lid, which at first closes this 
mouth, but afterwards becomes nearly erect, 
is plano-convex, green and somewhat hairy 
without, clouded with purple within, and 
scalloped at the margin ; the inside is clouded 
with dark purple, and contains a watery fluid, 
which entraps many insects, especially ants. 
The chief interest of the plant attaches to 
these remarkable appendages. The flowers 
are small, greenish white, without petals, and 
borne on a spicate raceme, which grows up 
a foot high and upwards. It is met with in 
various parts of New Holland, in boggy places, 
chiefly near the coast ; it flowers there in 
December. The first living plants which were 
introduced appear to have been placed in the 
Royal Gardens at Kew in 1823. It blooms 
there in August. 
The Cephalotus is a bog plant, and there- 
fore delights in moisture. Indeed, the two 
chief requisites in its artificial cultivation, 
seem to be a regular supply of moisture at 
the root, and an equally moist and calm at- 
mosphere. It is often kept in a stove, on 
account of the facility there afforded for sup- 
plying these conditions, but it does not require 
the heat of the stove. It should be potted in 
a wide shallow pot, half-filled with pieces of 
broken potsherd and charcoal, a fourth of 
roughish lumps of fibry peat soil, mixed with 
small lumps of charcoal, and the remainder 
close about the base of the plant, with common 
sphagnum and hypnum moss, cut short, that 
is, into pieces of about an inch in length ; 
these materials must be carefully placed in 
the pots, the roots of the plants spread out 
among the peaty soil, and the cut moss very 
carefully and compactly as well as neatly laid 
about the base of the plants under the leaves 
and pitchers. To the surface a little fresh 
cut moss should from time to time be added, 
both to keep a neat appearance, and also to 
give the plant the benefit of a fresh supply of 
material about it, as the former decreases in 
bulk through decomposition. The pots should 
be set into garden pans, which should be 
pretty well supplied with water, so that the 
soil and material in the pots may be constantly 
supplied by capillary attraction, but must not 
be suffered to stand in the pans and become 
stagnated ; it should be often changed, and 
the pot may stand without a fresh supply for 
a day or so ; then it may be given as before. 
The surface of the moss about the plant will 
hardly require to be directly supplied with 
water, as it will draw up enough from be- 
neath; but in case it should be getting some- 
what dry, it may be sprinkled over slightly 
so as to keep it moist. A bell-glass should 
usually be placed over the plant. If it be 
in a plant-stove, where there is a close humid 
atmosphere, then the glass may be removed 
during the night, and sometimes in the day, 
when the sun is not powerful and there is not 
a draught of cold or dry air rushing into the 
house. If kept in the greenhouse, the glass 
should be usually kept over the plants. They 
prefer a somewhat shaded to an exposed situ- 
ation, that where they are partially overhung by 
contiguous plants being very suitable for them. 
In the garden of Sir W. Molesworth, at 
Pencarrow in Cornwall, the Cephalotus has 
been grown under certain conditions out of 
doors, with merely the protection of a hand- 
glass.* Those conditions were as follows : — 
In a large piece of rockwork at Pencarrow, 
a bog or swamp of irregular shape, averaging 
nine feet in diameter, was formed; this is well 
sheltered and shaded from the sun. Above 
is a reservoir from which, by means of a pipe, 
a greater or less supply of water is obtained, 
just as may be deemed requisite. When this bog 
was formed, the ground being porous, a layer 
of wet clay was put at the bottom ; on this, a 
mixture of turfy peat and a very little de- 
cayed leaf mould ; and on the top a layer of 
sphagnum, with some of its decayed roots, and 
some of its natural soil that was under the roots. 
Four years ago, some Sarracenias (another 
kind of pitcher-plant) were planted in the bog 
under the hand-glass, and have grown well. 
Three years ago the Cephalotus planted in 
a similar manner grew very well. In April, 
1846, it was rooted up by a mouse or snail, and 
appeared dead. The roots were all dead, but a 
little life was left in the stem. This was placed 
upon a rotten stump of a tree, that had some 
* Journal of the Horticultural Society, vol. ii. p. 72. 
