The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . has a diameter of 1 meter, a dimension exceeding even that of the giganticblooms of South American aristolochias. At the period of emergence of the budsof Bajfflesia Arnoldii from the roots of the vines which serve them as hosts, they BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHORE^, RAFFLESIACEiE. 203 are only as large as a walnut and give scarcely any indication of their futureinao-nitude; but they gradually increase in size, and before opening are curiouslylike a cabbage. Up to this time the bracts still inclose the flower prope
The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . has a diameter of 1 meter, a dimension exceeding even that of the giganticblooms of South American aristolochias. At the period of emergence of the budsof Bajfflesia Arnoldii from the roots of the vines which serve them as hosts, they BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHORE^, RAFFLESIACEiE. 203 are only as large as a walnut and give scarcely any indication of their futureinao-nitude; but they gradually increase in size, and before opening are curiouslylike a cabbage. Up to this time the bracts still inclose the flower proper, and!to them is due the above-mentioned resemblance. They now open back, andthe flower, which, to the last, grows rapidly, unfolds and displays five immenselobes around a central bowl or cup-shaped portion. The form of the giant-flowerwhen open is best likened to that of a forget-me-not blossom. The semicircularjoutline of the lobes, at least, is similar, and the very short throat of the flower alsojexhibits a distant resemblance. At the part where the bowl-shaped centre, which. Fig. id.—Mafflesia Padina, parasitic on roots upon the surface of the ground. has the stamens and styles inserted in it, passes into the lobes there is a thick,fleshy ring like a corona. The upper surface of the lobes is covered with numbersof papillae. The lobes themselves, the hollow central bowl, and the ring, are allflesh}^, and the flower, as a whole, emits an unpleasant putrescent smell. Thisfloral prodigy was first discovered in the year 1818 in the interior of Sumatra atPulo Lebbas on the river Manna, where it occurs parasitic on the roots of wildvines in places where the ground is strewn with the dung of elephants. It hasnever yet been seen anywhere outside Sumatra. Four other Rafflesise have,jhowever, been discovered, but all in the islands of the Indian Ocean—Java, Borneo,and the Philippines. In mode of growth, as also in the form of the flowers, theyresemble the species above described
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1902
