CULTIVATION OF BAFFLESIA AllNOLDI. 373 



tion must be souglit for, which possibly may be, that the seeds of the 

 Rofflesia^ after the dissolutioa of the plant, scattered through the woods 

 and forced into the ground by the rain, are taken up by the fine hair- 

 roots of the Cissus. It appears to me more probable that this propa- 

 gation and grafting is effected by insects, which, on the dissolution of 

 the plant, leaving it on account of its disagreeable smell, use these 

 seeds, and transfer them undigested to the roots or subterranean stem 

 of the CissuSj and deposit them in some fissure of the bark. From the 

 situation of most of the Raffiesifs, we should determine that this was 

 done by some insect living underground, as the greater number of the 

 buds are found on the thinner roots, growing wholly underground, al- 

 though I have seen some few that have been developed a few feet above 

 the soil and on the stem. If however we take into consideration that 

 the seeds may be shifted to a great distance from the place of grafting, 

 by the tissue of cells, or between the bark and wood, then it may be 

 indiflFerent where the grafting takes place; and it may be effected by 

 winged insects, such as I have frequently seen come off the stem of the 

 plant while in process of dissolution. Still something else must be 

 borne in mind, viz. that it is known that Raffiesia are dicecious, that is 

 masculine and feminine. How does the impregnation happen? This 

 may also be done by insects, if two plants of different sexes are at the 

 same time in a state of development : let this be so.* Such cannot 

 have been the case with the plant received from Bencoolen ; though it 

 came to us expanded, it was not open when it was dug out of the 

 woods, since the plant has only a few days to live in a flowering 

 slate, and it seems almost impossible that the impregnation can take 

 place before the opening, because the leaves all fit so closely upon each 

 other, that no insect could possibly move between them ; and yet the 

 seeds of this most probably unimpregnated plant have all come up well 

 here. Lastly, another consideration arises : let it be admitted that the 

 seeds uve well impregnated by some means or other, how is it possible 

 » that they ripen in so short a time? for only a few days after blossom- 

 in'' the whole plant decays. If the culture of this plant be extended, 

 which there is no reason to doubt, future observations, under a regular 

 watching of the plants in gardens, may possibly clear up much that is 

 dark and unknown, and of what it is impossible to observe in the wil- 



♦ The question still arises, by what way or means is it possible for the pollen to 

 penetrate the cavities of the ovary? — Dc V. 



