Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/176

 COASTS OF AUSTRAt,IA. '155 cavities, upon examination, contained but yery 'i8. little water, and the state of the weather was exceedingly cloudy, und at intervals showery; if, therefore, the appendages are really cisterns, to receive an elemental fluid for the nourish- ment of the plant in times of drought, it is na- tural to suppose that this circumstance would operate upon 'the ramified vessels of the lids, so as to draw them up, and allow the rain to re- plenish the pitchers. Mr. Brown also, who had an opportunity in 1801 of examining plants fully grown, supposes it probable that the vertical or horizontal poitiorm in which the operela were remarked, are determined by the state of the at- mcephere, at the same time that he thinks it possible that the fluid may be a secretion of the plant. The several dead insects' that were ob- served within the vases of cepalotus were very possibly deposited there by an insect of prey, since I detected a slender-bodied fly (khnm. mort) within a dosed pitcher, having evident- ly forced its passage under the lid to the interior, where an abundant store of putres. cent insects were collected. WhilSt, there- fore, these pitchers are answering the double purpose, of being a reservoir to retain a fluid, however produced, for the nourishment of the plant in the exi6ency of a dry season, as also

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