COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
155 
cavities, upon examination, contained but very I822. 
little water, and the state of the weather was Jan. 5. 
exceedingly cloudy, and at intervals showery; 
if, therefore, the appendages are really cisterns, 
to receive an elemental fluid for the nourish- 
ment of the plant in times of drought, it is na- 
tural to suppose that this circumstance would 
operate upon the ramified vessels of the lids, so 
as to draw them up, and allow the rain to re- 
plenish the pitchers. Mr. Brown also, who had 
an opportunity in 1801 of examining plants fully 
grown, supposes it probable that the vertical or 
horizontal positions in which the opercula were 
remarked, are determined by the state of the at- 
mosphere, at the same time that he thinks it 
possible that the fluid may be a secretion of the 
plant. The several dead insects that were ob- 
served within the vases of cephalotus were very 
possibly deposited there by an insect of prey, 
since I detected a slender-bodied fly (ichneu- 
mon) within a closed pitcher, having evident- 
ly forced its passage under the lid to the 
interior, where an abundant store of putres- 
cent insects were collected. Whilst, there- 
fore, these pitchers are answering the double 
purpose, of being a reservoir to retain a fluid, 
however produced, for the nourishment of the 
plant in the exigency of a dry season, as also 
