AUSTRALIAN PITCHER PLANTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 25, 21 December 1907, Page 23

AUSTRALIAN PITCHER PLANTS.

Either the above name or New Holland Pitcher plant is applied to this anomalons member of the Saxifraga family, botanically known as Ccphalotns follieularis. It is the only species known to science, and is remarkable as belonging to the family we have just named. We know that several other allied plants belonging to the Droseraceae have adopted special methods of seeming nitrogenous material from tin' insects which they capture. This is effected by special structures on their leaves in the nature of coarse grandular hairs. The plant under notice, however, has developed a pitcher upon the leaves which, to all intents and purposes, is precisely similar to the pitcher of a Nepenthes. The whole plant is usually dwarf, and not all the leaves are modified in this peculiar form. Many gardeners have seen this plant, though few have had the opportunity of cultivating it. Two ridges running along the front of the pitcher recall tin- fringes of Nepenthes. The annulus or collar is strongly ribbed, and bears even a stronger resemblance to Nepenthes. The lid of the pitcher is green and variously ornamented with white patches more or less tinted with purple or pink, and recalls the windowlike, subtransparent spots on the lids of the Sarracenia and Darlingtonia pitchers, and which have such an attraction for insects. The flowers are small, white, and produced on an erect and compound spike, but are small and insignificant, and. apart from their botanical interest, they are of no importance. The cultivator who attempts to grow this plant should put it in shallow pans, stood in a greenhouse or other cool structure. A bell-gOffas to cover the whole pan will also be found a useful adjunct to keep the plant in health, especially in winter and during spring, when it commences to make its fresh growth. In the matter of compost it has been found to thrive well in a mix-

ture of live sphagnum, chopped up in the same way as is done by orchid growers, and mixed with a quantity of fibrous peat from which the fine dusty material lias been shaken out. Some sand anil finely broken bricks or potsherds mixed with the other material will be found useful in keeping the whole mass porous and open, so as to ensure good drainage. Plenty of moisture should be given at the roots and in the atmosphere during summer. but less in winter.