Travel Tales 
j| of a Plant Collector ft 
E. H. WILSON 
Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum 
Author of “Romance of Our Trees,” “Aristocrats of the Garden,” “A Naturalist in Western China” 
THE TROPICS OF THE OLD WORLD—Part 2 
(Part I will be found on page 170 of the preceding issue) 
Predacious Plants of Classic Fame that Feed on Air and Insects—a Race 
of Ever-blooming Rhododendrons—Begonias from the Dark Forests of Assam 
Editors’ Note: By his unparalleled contribution to Occidental gardens of more than 2,000 new trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants brought back from a 
fourteen-year search in the Far East, Mr. Wilson has won the permanent gratitude of gardeners everywhere. Many of his introductions are already established 
in popular favor, and nearly 200 have received the authoritative stamp of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Merit. 
The exclusive privilege of publishing these accounts of “Chinese Wilson’s” recent plant explorations through Africa, Asia, and Australia, in the footsteps of the 
older plant collectors, has been accorded The Garden Magazine, and preceding articles will be found in previous issues beginning with January of last year. 
Copyright, D. P. & Co., 1923 
OLD World Aroids the most important to our stove 
■)Wa* houses are species of Alocasia from the East Indies. 
> These have large, more or less heart-shaped leaf-blades 
Li mi II borne on long petioles, green, often blotched with dark 
shades, with white or red veins and a metallic or velvety lustre 
and dark red-purple on the underside. Among the best are the 
Bornean Alocasia metallica, A. Lowii, A. Thibautiana, and A. 
Iebrina , the last from the Philippines. 
With the exception of Orchids, most of the Old World tropical 
plants grown in our hothouses are cultivated for the sake of 
their handsome foliage; but the members of one not unimportant 
genus (Nepenthes or Pitcher-plants) are grown for the remark¬ 
able leaf-appendages known as pitchers. Few if any vegetable 
productions more excited the minds of early voyagers to the 
eastern tropics than the Nepenthes, and many were the curious 
speculations indulged in respecting the purpose of the pitchers. 
The name Nepenthes was given by Linnaeus and in itself is in¬ 
teresting as most applicable. The word “nepenthes” is of 
Greek origin and occurs in Homer’s Odyssey (Book IV. line 221) 
where it signifies a freeing from and causing an oblivion of grief. 
Translated the passage reads: “She (Helen) threw a drug into 
the wine, from which they drank that which frees men from 
grief, and from anger, and causes an oblivion of all ills.” Lin¬ 
naeus alluding to the pitchers writes, “If this is not Helen’s 
Nepenthes it certainly will be for all botanists. What botanist 
would not be filled with admiration if, after a long journey, he 
should find this wonderful plant. In his astonishment past ills 
would be forgotten when beholding this admirable work of the 
Creator.” The truth of this prophecy is from the pen of F. W. 
Burbidge who introduced several fine species. He writes in his 
“Gardens of the Sun” (p. 100): “All thoughts of fatigue and 
discomfort vanished as we gazed on these living wonders of the 
Bornean Andes. To see these plants (Nepenthes) in all their 
health and vigor was a sensation 1 shall never forget.” 
Pygmy Thumb-size Pitchers and Those That Hold Two Quarts 
HE genus is preeminently Malayan with headquarters on 
the mountains of Borneo where grow species like N. rajah, N. 
Edwardsiana, N. Lowii, N. Nortbianae and others which have 
the largest and most handsome pitchers. One species ( N. 
phyllamphora ) is found as far north as the neighborhood of Can¬ 
ton in southern China and several occur in the Philippines; one 
species ( N. khasiana) grows in Assam, one ( N. distillatoria ) in 
Ceylon, another ( N. Pervillei) on the Seychelles Islands. The 
most eastern species is N. Viellardii peculiar to New Caledonia 
and in north Australia grows N. Kennedyana. Most extra¬ 
ordinary of all in the point of distribution is the fact that one 
species ( N. madagascariensis ) is indigenous on the island of 
Madagascar. This was the first species discovered, being found 
in 1661 by P. Commers, the first European traveller in Mada¬ 
gascar. To this the name of “Amramatica” was given by 
Flacourt. This Madagascar species was lost sight of by botan¬ 
ists until 1797 when Poiret published its name in Lamarck’s 
famous “ Encyclopedia, ” but it was not introduced into cultiva¬ 
tion until 1879 when Messrs. Veitch of Chelsea received it from 
their collector, Charles Curtis. It was the Ceylon species that 
Linnaeus based the genus upon. 
The story of N. Nortbianae is worth recording. This fine 
species was revealed to science through a painting made by Miss 
Marianne North [very fascinating are her “ Recollections of a 
Happy Life,” published in two volumes by the Macmillan Co., 
1894] whose life was largely spent travelling over the world 
with paint-box, brush, and canvas. The results of her skill are 
many hundreds of accurate pictures of flowers painted in every 
land and which, bequeathed to the nation, are one of Lew’s 
proudest possessions. 
The sketch made in Sarawak was shown in 1880 to Mr. I Iarry 
Veitch who at once recognised it as representing a new species of 
Nepenthes. Miss North said the specimen had been brought to 
her by an employee of the North Borneo Company “who tra¬ 
versed pathless forests amid snakes and leeches to find and 
bring them down to her.” Charles Curtis was about to start on 
a collecting trip for Messrs. Veitch in Malaysia and he received 
special orders to try and introduce this Nepenthes into England. 
Curtis experienced much difficulty in finding the plant. After 
searching vainly for several days he decided to give up the task 
in the belief that Miss North had been wrongly informed as to 
the locality in which it grew. When on the point of leaving it 
occurred to him to look over a steep escarpment, which he ac¬ 
complished by lying prostrate on the ground, and to his great 
joy he discovered the plant growing at some distance beneath 
him. On reaching the plants he found ripe capsules and lost no 
time in transmitting the seeds to Messrs. Veitch with whom they 
soon germinated. Later the species was named for the estimable 
lady who first brought it to our knowledge. It has proved to 
be one of the most tractable under cultivation, and it is oneof the 
handsomest of the genus. 
Some Nepenthes are low sub-shrubs, others climbers with 
stems 30 ft. and more long; they grow in humus-filled niches on 
the face of cliffs or on the tops of rocks or epiphytically in the 
forks of trees. The flowers are insignificant and pollinated by 
the wind, but the pitchers are striking and in their shape, color, 
