PECULIARITIES OE PLANTS. 
311 
adunca ? This seems to have been the opinion of Macbride; the 
water, however, at the bottom is often very offensive, which no 
doubt arises either from the putrid insects, or the stagnation of the 
water, as we could not perceive any smell in those just opened, 
where no insects had made an entrance, and when the water was 
fresh. The goblet shaped appendages attached to the leaves of 
the Nepenthes distillatoria, (Fig. 38,) are like so many organs of 
secretion, and furnish a strong reason for supposing that the plant 
supplies the water through the footstalks. These plants grow in 
China and the marshes of India, in situations where they are 
partially submerged in water. Each pitcher has a curious lid, 
which is at first shut closely down, but, as the pitcher grows in size, 
the lids gradually open, and they are then found to contain a con¬ 
siderable quantity of water, which has something of a sweetish, 
though rather insipid taste. Within a few days after the lids 
open, the pitchers become the grave of a multitude of insects, 
chiefly flies, concerning which a variety of opinions have been 
entertained. The uses of the pitchers are scarcely known. Rum - 
phius supposed they were intended as nests for a sort of shrimp 
frequently found therein.* Linnaeus thought they were reservoirs 
of water, to which animals might repair in time of drought, their 
lid being especially destined to close up the mouth of the vessel 
for the prevention of evaporation. Others suppose the putrid in¬ 
sects form a kind of animal manure which, passing through the 
footstalk of the leaf, nourishes the whole plant. It is difficult to 
determine what may be their use, but they can scarcely be consi¬ 
dered mere reservoirs of water for animals, since the plants invari¬ 
ably grow in swamps and ditches, where such reservoirs would 
be useless. Besides, the lid never alters its position when once 
raised from the pitcher, and therefore does not prevent evaporation, 
the mouth being once opened. The water contained in the pitcher 
is, for the most part, evaporated within a few days after the opening 
of the lid, although there is evidently an increased secretion during 
the nights, yet never to any considerable quantity, at least not in 
our stoves. Professor L. C. Treviranus, of Breslaw, found that when 
the lid of N. phyllamorphia was open, the water diminished one half 
by solar evaporation, but it was restored again at night. In Ceylon, 
Mr. Campbell informs us, that animals of the Simla tribe are well 
acquainted with this plant, and frequently resort to it to quench 
* Messrs. Kirby and Spence (Int. to Ent. Vol. 1, page 296,) think it probable 
that Dytisci oviposit in them; and that the Squilla or Shrimp which Rumphius 
found there was one of their larvae, this being the old name for them. 
