286 
The Garden Magazine, January, 1924 
IN A TROPICAL INDIAN FOREST 
Where the Tree-fern sprays into sudden beauty and 
ambitious Aroids throw out pinnated leaves as they climb 
and size are most reliable organs to discriminate between the 
species. 
These pitchers on different species may be tubular, cylindric, 
urn- or flask-shape and are close-capped by a lid when young. 
The pigmy of the genus is N. phyllampbora with pitchers no 
larger than a man’s thumb; the giant is N. rajah whose pitchers 
hold as much as two quarts of water. Between these extremes 
are found every gradation. In color the pitchers are usually 
some shade of red without, more intense and purple within; very 
many are mottled and striped and blotched in a striking man¬ 
ner; a few are green without. The rim of the pitcher, which al¬ 
ways curves inward, is variable in width and the channelling is 
often very remarkable. These pitchers secret honey at their 
entrance and act as traps to decoy insects and small animals 
whose bodies are decomposed by a fluid secreted from the walls 
of the pitchers and supply the plant, in part at least, with its 
nitrogenous food. In other words these extraordinary plants, 
by the aid of these pitchers, capture and eat insects and small 
animals. 
On Mt. Kina Balu, in 1851, Sir Hugh Low discovered N. 
rajah and other noble species, but the bulk have been introduced 
by the famous house of Messrs. Veitch to whom we owe most 
of the handsome hybrid Nepenthes which, on the whole, are 
more easily cultivated than their wild parents. 
When dealing with China in our September 
article it was stated that Rhododendron found 
its headquarters in that land. On the moun¬ 
tains of Malaysia grow members of a peculiar 
section of the genus from which have been 
evolved by hybridization (mainly by Messrs. 
Veitch) a race of ever-blooming greenhouse 
Rhododendrons. The species of this section 
grow either epiphytically or in humus on cliffs 
and boulders. They are of straggling habit 
with tufted leaves and clusters of salver-shape 
flowers each with a long slender tube, the shape 
suggestive of aStephanotisora Jasmineflower. 
Typical species are R. jasminiflorum, R. mul¬ 
ticolor, and R. javanicum. The colors are most 
brilliant and include white, pink, yellow, 
orange, red, and intense scarlet to crimson. 
From the hybridization of the above three 
and other species, many forms of greater value 
than the parent species have been produced. 
Indeed, though not easy of culture, these Rho¬ 
dodendron are among the most beautiful 
flowering shrubs that the Old World tropics 
have given to our greenhouses. 
From New Caledonia came Coleus Gibsonii 
and C. Veitchii, pretty in themselves and par¬ 
ents of most of the familiar Coleus of our gar¬ 
dens whose leaves are of every color. Both 
were introduced by JohnGould Veitch in 1865. 
From Uganda in the heart of equatorial Africa 
came the blue-flowered Coleus ihyrsoidea sent 
to Kew in 1898 by John Mahon who died one 
of the first white victims of the dreadful sleep¬ 
ing sickness. 
At Hongkong and south through the Philip¬ 
pines and Malaysia are found many species of 
Ixora. Some of these like I. macrothyrsa, 7 . 
acuminata, and 7 . florihnnda have been intro¬ 
duced, and with hybrids from them are among 
the first ornaments of our stove or tropical 
houses. 
The pretty Plumbago rosea hails from Cey¬ 
lon, while Aeschynanthus with their fleshy 
leaves and bright colored flowers are common 
epiphytes in Malaysia. The climbing Hoyas, 
of which H. bella and H. carnosa with waxy 
flowers are familiar examples, are Indo- 
Malayan with outlying members in south China. The common 
Ficus elastica is a large tree in Indo-Malaya where it yields an 
inferior rubber. Various species of Aralia, with finely divided 
and pleasingly marked foliage of which A. Veitcbii is a well- 
known example, are from the South Sea Islands. 
From the dark forests of Assam came Begonia rex with its 
handsomely marked foliage. The pretty blue-flowered Saint- 
paulia ionantha is East African. Many noble Ferns we owe to 
the tropics of the Old World including all the epiphytic Platyce- 
riums, Asplenium nidus-avis, many Tree-ferns and others too 
numerous for record here; Club-mosses too, including the re¬ 
markable Selaginella grandis, S. Lobbii, S. atroviridis, S. cau- 
lescens and the favorite A. Kraussiana. 1 hese with many Ferns 
carpet the depths of Malayan forests, others grow among the 
tree-tops.. 
The Lotus of African Lakes 
F ROM the lakes and sluggish rivers of Africa have come the 
rose-red Nympbaea Lotus and the blue-flowered N. stellata, 
but the finest jewel in the genus is TV. giganiea from Queensland, 
with its large, lovely blue flowers. 1 he sizable and but little 
familiar island of Madagascars known to the ancient, as “the 
Island of the Moon”, has given quite a number of remarkable 
plants to gardens, but none more so than the extraordinary 
