Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1884 — A Wonderful Flower. [ARTICLE]

A Wonderful Flower.

“Come -with me, air, come! A flower very large and beautiful, wonderful!” exclaimed a Malay, who drew the attention of Dx Arnold to a flower remarkable alike for its enormous size and its anomalous structure and habit. The surprise of the Malay was nothing compared with that of Dr. Arnold and hi? companions, Sir Stanford and Lady Raffles, when, following the native attendant, they say among the bushes of a jungle a flower, apparently springing out of the ground, without stem or leaf, and measuring at least a yard in diameter. The first news of this remarkable discovery created a great amount of curiosity in Europe, and no papers ever read at the Linasean Society can be.compared for the interest they excited, with those in which the illustrious Robert Brown described this wonder of the vegetable world. It is, composed of five roundish leaves or pedals, each a foot across, of a brick-red color, but covered with numerous irregular yellowish white swellings. The pedals surround a large cup nearly a foot wide, the margin of which bears the stamens; and this cup is filled with a fleshy disc, the upper surface of which is everywhere covered with curved projections, like miniature cows’ horns. The cup, when freed of its contents, would hold about six quarts of water. The flower weighs fifteen pounds. It is very thick; the petals being from three-fourths to one inch in thickness. A flower of such dimensions and weight might be expected to be a treasure to the perfumer; but, alas, its odor is exactly that of tainted beef. Dr. Arnold supposed that even the flies which swarmed over the flower when he discovered it, were deceived by its smell and were depositing their eggs in its thick disc, taking it for a piece of carrion! Another cause of wonder to the little band of explorers who discovered it, was that they could find no leaves connected with it. It sprang from a small leafless, creeping stem, about as thick as two fingers. Now a plant without leaves is like an animal without a stomach; for the leaves are to the plant what the stomach is to the animal; they separate from the air the food needed for the growth of the plant. There are, however, strange plants which are actually leafless, making up for this want by using the leaves of others. Such plants are called parasites, because they feed on the nutritive juices of others. Thrusting their roots into the living tissues of other plants instead of the earth, they appropriate the prepared food of these plants, and at once apply it for their own purposes for the production of stem, flower, or fruit. The gigantic Rafflesia belongs to this class. Without a vestige of foliage, it rises directly from the longer stem of one of the wild vines of Sumatra—immense climbers, which are attached like cables to the largest trees of the forests. The buds push through the bark like little buttons, continuing to grow until they have the aspect of larg#, closed cabbages, and in about three months after their first appearance, the flower expands. It remains but a short time in perfection, soon beginning to rot, leaving only the central disc, which becomes a large, rough fruit, filled with multitudes of small seeds. — World, of Wonders.