Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/566

 550 PITCHER PLANTS PITKIN at the base; above this wing the midrib is greatly prolonged, curved or spirally twisted, and at the end expanded into an urn or pitcher, the mouth of which is furnished with a lid Nepenthes distillatoria. attached by a sort of hinge, and is sometimes open and sometimes closed ; the lid does not open until the leaf is completely developed, and before this takes place the watery liquid is secreted and partly fills the pitcher. These wonderful leaves have been erroneously said to secrete water for the use of travellers in arid regions where no other supply exists ; the fact is that the plants are only found in swamps, and cannot endure a dry atmosphere. The pitchers vary greatly in size and form, and also in color and markings. The species first intro- duced, and for a long time the only one in cultivation, Jfc distillatoria, has narrow cylin- drical pitchers, 6 or 8 in. long, which are of the same light green color as the leaves ; this is the easiest of cultivation, enduring a lower temperature than the others ; its variety rubra, a chance seedling, has the pitchers of a deep blood-red color, and is ornamental and rare. The species is so abundant in Ceylon that the natives use the strong midribs for cords and withes. N. pJiyllamphora and N. gracilis are other species having green pitchers. Some have the pitchers handsomely variegated ; of these N. Rafflesiana may be taken as an ex- ample ; it is a very robust plant, with pitchers 6 to 12 in. long ; the mouth of the pitcher has a handsomely annulated border and a large lid ; each side of the front is a broad wing, fringed with long hairs upon the edge; the leaves are dark green, and the pitchers are of the same color beautifully spotted and blotched with red. As the plants of this and some allied species become old their pitchers assume a very different shape; in the young leaves they are largest at the base, have two wings in front where the midrib is attached, and the oblique mouth of the pitcher looks toward the midrib ; in the old plant the base is much nar- rowed, the wings are wanting, and the mouth of the pitcher looks from the midrib ; were it not that every intermediate state occurs on the same plant, the two extremes would be taken as belonging to different species. The nepenthes are increased by cuttings and some- times by seed; for their cultivation they re- quire a moist atmosphere and a temperature not less than 70 ; they are usually grown in baskets of peat and sphagnum and abundant- ly supplied with water. The various pitcher plants have of late been regarded with new interest ; always noticeable for their unusual structure, and long cultivated as objects of curiosity, the investigations of Darwin and others upon the relations of plants and insects have led to new observations upon the various pitcher plants. To what is said in the article INSEOTIVOBOUS PLANTS in regard to Sarracenia it may be added that Dr. Mellichamp of South Carolina has observed that in 8. variolaris, " not only is honey secreted in numerous drops around the inside of the mouth, but that there is actually a trail of it, when the leaf is in its fullest vigor, running down the margin of the wing to the ground, the whole forming a most effectual lure to honey-loving insects." Re- cent observations have shown that Darling- tonia is also provided with a bait to entice in- sects to the hidden orifice of its tube ; the fish- tail-shaped appendage at the top has been found to be " smeared with honey on the inner sur- face." While botanists have been busy with the plants, the entomologists have studied the insects found in the pitchers of Sarracenia. Prof. 0. Y. Riley of St. Louis finds that while the dead insects found in the pitchers are nu- merous species of all orders, there are two which "brave the dangers of 8. variolaris" and make their home in its leaves; one of these is a small moth, xantJioptera semicrocea, the larva of which makes a web just within the mouth of the tube and feeds upon its substance ; the other is a flesh fly not before described, sarcophaga sarracenice; the female drops her living larvae into the tube, to the number of a dozen or more ; these feed upon the soft parts of the dead insects accumulated in the tube and upon one another, so that only one of the larvsB usually matures, the rest hav- ing fallen victims ; the maggot finally makes its way through the base of the tube, burrows in the ground, and there is transformed. PITRIN, Timothy, an American historian, born at Farmington, Conn. Jan. 21, 1766, died in New Haven, Dec. 18, 1847. He graduated at Yale college in 1785, studied law, became a member of the state legislature, where for five sessions he was speaker of the house, and from 1806 to 1820 was a representative in congress. He published " A Statistical View of the Com- merce of the United States" (New Haven, 1816; revised ed., 1835), and "Political and Civil History of the United States from 1763