. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. The Raflflesia Patma of Blume is found in the shady thickets of the little island of Nusa Kambagan, which adjoins Java on the south. It grows upon the roots of the Cissus Scariosa of'Blume, and seems exceedingly partial to moist ground, where the diameter of the expanded flower is found to reach the size of two Dutch feet (about one foot seven inches English), but in dryer,- and consequently less favorable situa- tions, it does not exceed one EngUsli foot in diameter. The plants of the genus RaflBesia have been found on the s
. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. The Raflflesia Patma of Blume is found in the shady thickets of the little island of Nusa Kambagan, which adjoins Java on the south. It grows upon the roots of the Cissus Scariosa of'Blume, and seems exceedingly partial to moist ground, where the diameter of the expanded flower is found to reach the size of two Dutch feet (about one foot seven inches English), but in dryer,- and consequently less favorable situa- tions, it does not exceed one EngUsli foot in diameter. The plants of the genus RaflBesia have been found on the stems, as well as upon the roots, of the genera Cissus and Vitis; they form the only instances of parasites on roots, which likewise proceed from other parts of the plant. Isert, in his Reise iiach Guinea, p. 283, mentions a plant, which he had observed in equinoctial Africa, para- sitic on the roots of trees, consisting almost entirely of a single flower of a red colour, which is probably allied to Rafilesiaj the smaller species of which it seems to resemble in appearance. Dr Blume was convinced, after a careful examination of the R. Patma, that it had no connexion whatever with the woody layers of the root of the Cissus Scariosa, but that it was only united with the substance of the bark of the root. It is a singular fact, that the growing bark, having its continuity interrupted by the collet of the Rafflesia entering into its substance, swells into a cup-shaped process round about the flower buds of the Rafflesia, and that this cup-like process varies in diameter according to the length of time which must elapse between the first rising of the flower bud, and the ultimate fall of the flower itself and of its remains. The R. Patma differs from the R. Arnoldi, figured in a former number (4), in having the inside of the perianth red; and further, in having the columnar processes of its disc more numerous, stranger, and more unequal in length. It seems to depart still more widely
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