202 Mr. Brown's Account of a new Genus of Plants, 



" It is impossible I can do justice to his memory by any feeble 

 encomiums I may pass on his character ; he was in every thing 

 what he should have been, devoted to science and the acquisition 

 of knowledge, and aiming only at usefulness. 



"I had hoped, instead of the melancholy event I have now 

 to communicate, that we should have been able to send you an 

 account of our many interesting discoveries from the hand of 

 Dr. Arnold. At the period of his death he had not done much ; 

 all was arrangement for extensive acquirement in every branch 

 of natural history. I shall go on with the collections as well as 

 I can, and hereafter communicate with you respecting them, and 

 in the mean time content myself with giving you the best ac- 

 count I can of the largest and most magnificent Flower which, as 

 far as we know, has yet been described. Fortunately I have 

 found part of a letter from poor Arnold to some unknown friend, 

 written while he was on board ship, and a short time before his 

 death, from which the following is an extract. 



" After giving an account of our journey to Passummah, he 

 thus proceeds : 



" ' But here (at Pulo Lebbar on the Manna River, two days 

 journej^ inland of Manna) I rejoice to tell you I happened to 

 meet with what I consider as the greatest prodigy of the vege- 

 table world. I had ventured some way from the party, when one 

 of the Malay servants came running to me with wonder in his 

 eyes, and said, " Come with me, Sir, come ! a flower, very large, 

 beautiful, wonderful ! " I immediately went with the man about 

 a hundred yards in the jungle, and he pointed to a flower growing 

 close to the ground under the bushes, which was truly astonish- 

 ing. My first impulse was to cut it up and carry it to the hut. 

 I therefore seized the Malay's parang (a sort of instrument like 

 a woodman's chopping-hook), and finding that it sprang from a 

 small root which ran horizontally (about as large as two fingers, 



or 





