613 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
By Professor James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., &c. &c. 
('Continued from p. 531.) 
Although it is doubtful whether the Nepenthacece are 
rightly placed in the Euphorbial alliance, we follow Professor 
Lind ley in reviewing it now, for the reason he has so tersely 
expressed —“ it seems difficult to find any better place for the 
Order.” 
The interest is the Nepenthes centres in the curiously 
formed leaves, from which their common name of “ pitcher 
plants” has been derived. 
In order to understand the nature of the foliage in these 
plants, we would first quote Lindley’s diagnosis of these 
parts. He describes the Nepenths as “ herbaceous, or half- 
shrubby caulescent plants. Leaves alternate, slightly 
sheathing at the base, with a dilated foliaceous petiole, 
pitcher-shaped at the end, which is articulated with a lid¬ 
like lamina.” 
The pitcher, then, may be considered as a hollowed ex¬ 
pansion of the petiole , or leaf stalk, possessing a delicately- 
formed lid, which is the representative of the true pagina , or 
leaf. This latter part is here not sufficient to carry on the 
leaf-function, and this is provided for by a leafy expansion 
at the base of the petiole. Dr. Hooker follows Dr. Griffith 
in differing from this view. These authors agree that the 
basal portion, that which appears like an ordinary leaf, is the 
true lamina, tapering downwards into a more or less evident 
stalk; and that the pitcher-like appendage is a modification 
of the prolonged midrib of the leaf, or, rather, of a gland 
situated at the apex of the leaf. We prefer the first view. 
No less curious is the seed of these plants. The germ is 
placed in the centre of a loose tunic, which is lengthened 
into a straitened process at one end, and the same slightly 
curved at the other, an arrangement which enables the seed 
first to perform the act of a buoy to float it on the surface of 
the water, and when it arrives at the mud to anchor therein, 
until it has germinated. A more complete method for 
ensuring the proper rooting of a plant native to swampy 
ground can hardly be conceived. The pitchers of Nepenthes 
destillatoria , from secreting a watery fluid, give a name to 
the plant. This secretion was at one time supposed to be 
