ORGANOTOPIC PLANTS. 
147 
Everyone knows that the hollow, trumpet-shaped leaves 
are receptacles for water. Einnseus suggested that they 
might be reservoirs of water for the use of the birds. Very 
curiously, another botanist, Catesby, thought they might 
be refuges of insects from their pursuers ! Alas ! the in¬ 
sect that takes refuge in or on a pitcher plant is pretty sure 
to meet an untimely end. As Josh Billings says about the 
man who has begun to travel the downward road, he finds 
everything greased for the occasion ! In the first place, a 
honey-baited pathway leads up from the ground, and the 
insect finds himself soon on that gaily painted lid, the un¬ 
der or inner surface of which is coated with nectar. He 
revels here in sweets till suddenly, as he approaches the 
inner edge, his feet slip on a glassy surface. In vain he 
tries to climb back; not only is the surface slippery but 
there are also downwardly directed points, and he must 
perforce travel down, down into the pool within the hollow 
leaf, where he is eventually drowned. The plant secretes 
a large quantity of some fluid which appears to accelerate 
the decomposition of the animal contents of the reservoir, 
and the supply of nitrogenous material thus obtained 
doubtless benefits it and gives it an additional advantage 
in the struggle for existence. 
The story of the organotopic or dependent flowering 
plants cannot yet be told as it will be told when more ex¬ 
tensive observations have been made with regard to plants 
in which the effects of the abnormal relations are less evi¬ 
dent. We simply know at present that these plants may 
be conveniently divided into five well marked groups : 
Epiphytes, which simply locate themselves upon other 
plants ; Parasites, which are not only located upon but also 
draw nourishment from their hosts ; Saprophytes, which 
subsist upon vegetable or occasionally animal matter in a 
state of decay; Symbiots, which form partnerships with 
other plants, both partners benefiting from the alliance ; 
