April 22, 1905. 
The Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“The haunt o’ spring’s the Primrose brae, the simmer joys the flocks to follow.”— Burns. 
WEEKLY PRIZES 
FOR 
SHORT ARTICLES. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
will give a cash prize of Seven Shillings and 
Sixpence for the best paragraph, or short 
article, sent by readers during the week, and 
Two Shillings and Sixpence as a second 
prize. The Editor’s judgment must be con¬ 
sidered final, and he will be at liberty to use 
any of the contributions sent in. The para¬ 
graph, or article, must not exceed one 
column in length, but the value, rather than 
the length, of the article will be considered in 
making the award. Competitors may send in 
items of news or comments on news; hints of 
practical interest to gardeners or growers of 
plants, fruits, or flowers; successful methods of 
propagating plants usually considered difficult; 
or contributions on any subject coming 
WITHIN THE SPHERE OF GARDENING PROPER. 
Letters should be addressed to Thh Editor 
marked “Competition,” and posted not later 
than Friday night to ensure insertion in the 
issue of next week. 
The following Coloured Plates 
have appeared in recent num¬ 
bers :— 
September 12.—SIX NEW DAFFODILS 
October 3—LILIUM AURATUM PL A 
TYPHYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
Novembei 14.—ROSE MME. N. LEVA 
VASSEUR. 
»oir/2 E NE7 HYBR,D TEA - SCtNTED 
January 30. — TUBEROUS BEGONIA 
COUNTESS OF WARWICK. 
gloxinia| 7 ‘ A fine stra,n of 
ms t ELL,AT?' STAR ' A MULT,JUGA 
May 7 —CACTUS DAHLIA DAINTY. 
June 4.—CACTUS DAHLIA SPITFIRE 
July 16—ROSE LADY BATTERSEA. 
SUPERBUM.’ - ~ GE " M HELDREICHI 
October 15—ROSE HUGH DICKSON. 
nnkrT num ! )ers ma y be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2}d. post free. 
This week we present a Half-tone 
Plate of 
HESPERIS MATRONALIS ALBA FLORE 
PLENO. 
Next week we shall give a Half-tone 
Plate of 
erica veitchi. 
The first prize last week in the 
eaders Competition was awarded to 
Thl em -°’V° r his article 011 “&rape 
313; and the second to 
v \*;> for his article on “Hardy 
Annuals,” p, 307 , J 
Views and Reviews. 
New and Old Pitcher Plants. 
So great an interest had been created in 
Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes), about the time 
that Sir Joseph Hooker and the late Charles 
Darwin were discussing the insectivorous 
character not only of Pitcher Plants, but 
various other subjects, that all the known 
species that could be found were introduced 
to British Gardens, if, indeed, they were not 
already in cultivation. Some there were, 
however, that could not he successfully culti¬ 
vated even after they had been brought 
home alive. In this respect we should par¬ 
ticularly mention N. Rajah, which baffled 
British cultivators for many years, and few 
are yet in possession of the secret. Other 
remarkable species yet remain to be in¬ 
troduced, and seem to he known only from 
herbarium specimens, that is specimens 
dried and mounted for botanical purposes. 
Meantime, a number of raisers had been 
busy raising new forms by cross-breeding 
those in cultivation. These hybrids are 
very largely cultivated at the present day, 
and seem to he more easily grown to perfec¬ 
tion and preserved than the wild types. 
This idea is also largely borne out by the 
ease with which most of the hybrid Orchids 
can be cultivated, with exception perhaps of 
the Calanthes, which are considered to have 
been too much crossed by inbreeding. 
The subject of Nepenthes was again 
brought to the forefront at a meeting of 
the Linnean Society on the 6th iilst, when 
Mi’. AA illiam Botting Hemsley, of the Royal 
Herbarium, Kew, exhibited a considerable 
number of highly interesting wild species, 
including a new and previously undescribed 
one, as well as a number of garden hybrids. 
A brief reference to some of these may be 
interesting to our readers, showing what has 
yet to be disseminated in gardens and suc¬ 
cessfully cultivated—we were going to say, 
if that is possible ; but the new instances that 
now and again turn up of successful cultiva¬ 
tion would seem to indicate that any of the 
species or hybrids can be cultivated with 
success, provided the cultivator succeeds in 
discovering their particular likings. 
The paper was also illustrated Ly means 
of twenty-five magic-lantem slides, prepared 
by Mr. L. Farmer, showing various pitchers 
under different conditions, or parts of them, 
in order to bring out their peculiarities and 
demonstrate to the audience the features 
of many curious and little-known forms. 
Sections of the pitchers were also shown by 
means of the lantern, bearing upon the 
peculiarities of structure, including the di¬ 
gestive glands in the interior of the pitchers, 
and those intended to attract insects, etc. 
From 2,000 to 5,000 of these glands are con¬ 
tained in a square inch of surface, and tliei” 
object is to secret the liquid which partly 
fills the pitchers even before the lid opens. 
Any intelligent observer can easily de¬ 
termine for himself the situation of these 
glands by looking at the form of the pitcher, 
particularly those pitchers produced by 
dwarf plants. Most of them are more or 
less inflated or swollen in the lower portions 
of the pitcher, and the glands are situated 
on the inner face of the swollen portion. 
In a few instances there are special contri¬ 
vances about the lid or immediately be¬ 
neath it for preventing the escape of their 
prey when once they have been induced to 
enter. There is a smooth conducting sur¬ 
face immediately beneath the rim of all of 
them. Some of them have special contri¬ 
vances which we shall mention in connection 
with them. 
The first slide showed a view in the 
Nepenthes House at Kew, and most of the 
pitchers seen were hybrids, thus illustrat¬ 
ing their popularity with cultivators, even 
independently of any handsome features 
they may possess. The second slide showed 
a hitherto unpublished new species named 
N. Macfarlanei, Hemsl., named after Pro¬ 
fessor Macfarlane of Philadelphia. This 
new species comes from Perak, in the Malay 
Peninsula. Its peculiarity consists of a 
clothing of long and coarse bristle-like hairs, 
mixed with honey glands, on the lower sur¬ 
face of the lid of the pitcher. There is only 
one other species known to science having 
this peculiarity, namely, N. Lowii, but the 
latter has never been introduced to cultiva¬ 
tion so far as we know. 
Another very interesting feature of the 
exhibit was a view of the pitcher of N. Rajah, 
taken from living material, and from the 
only plant of this species now living in this 
country. The successful cultivator was Mr. 
F. AA*. Moore, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Glasnevin, who seems to have mastered the 
cultivation of this refractory species. Several 
other cultivators in Britain itself have made 
a bold endeavour to grow this plant, which 
produces the largest pitchers known to 
science so far. Those who have tried it in 
tliis country have subjected it to great heat 
and moisture, hut we understand that Mr. 
