Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1884 — The Gigantic Rafflesia. [ARTICLE]

The Gigantic Rafflesia.

One of the largest and most magnificent flowers in the world is the Rafflesia Arnoldi. This wonderful plant was discovered in 1818 by Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of a settlement in Sumatra, who, on a journey of exploration through that little-known island, took with him Dr. Arnold, an ardent young naturalist, whose drawings and descriptions of this' gigantic flower were left unfinished alt his death, which occurred shortly after, but were preserved and perfected by his patron, and the memory of both is preserved by paming it Rafflesia Arnoldi. The most striking feature in this flower is its enormous size. It is composed of five roundish petals, each a foot across, of a brick-red color, blit covered with numerous irregular, yel-lowish-white swellings. The petals surround a large cup nearly a foot wide, the margin of which bears the stamens; and this cup is filled with a fleshy disk, the surface of which is everywhere covered with curved projections like miniature cows’ horns. The„ cup, when freed from its contents, would hold about twelve pints of water. The flower weighs about fifteen pounds. It is very thick, the petals being frequently an inch in thickness. 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 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. Without them there could be no wood, no flowers, no frifit, no seed. 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 into the earth, they appropriate the prepared food of these plants, and at once apply it to their own purposes for the production of stem or flower or fruit.” The Gigantic IlafHesia belongs to this class. Without a vestige of foliage, it rises at once from the long, slender stems of the wild vines of Sumatra immense climbers, which are attached like cables to the largest trees’ in the forest. The buds push through the bark like little buttons, continuing to grow until they have the aspect of largo 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 decay, leaving only the central disk, which becomes a large, rough fruit, filled with multitudes of small, simple seeds.