and on various Plants related to them. \\\ 7 



and inelastic dehiscence of the anthers. And their situations in the above 

 circumstances, under that part of the column which may perhaps be con- 

 sidered as stigmatic, would I think be a great obstacle, even supposing the 

 flowers were hermaphrodite. 



The presence of an annulus or corona, again, unless it be found to pos^ 

 some power of closing, (which, judging from the elevated border of that oJ 

 Thismia and that of the flower-bud of Sapria, may not be improbable,) docs 

 not, to say the least, add to the facility of impregnation by such foreign agents 

 as insects. However, if the firmness and nature of the attachment of the 

 plant, its short, robust stature and closeness to the ground, and the protected 

 situations in which it is found be taken into consideration, it is Bcareely pos- 

 sible to suppose that any agency but that of insects would be likely to carry 

 through the first parts of the process of fecundation. To such agency ir 

 appears beautifully adapted by its fleshy appearance and odour, viscid pol- 

 len*, and probably immense stigmatic surface. 



Obs. VI. — The fruit, to the best of my recollection, was somewhat larger 

 than the flower, and crowned with the brown, erect, or connivent, hardened 

 segments of the perianth. Its structure was much the same as that of the 

 ovarium, and the seeds appeared to me, in the hard waxy nature of the embryo, 

 very like those of Thismia. 



Obs. VII. — The genus appears to be intermediate between Rafflesia and 



Brugmansia. From the former, to one species of which, R. Manillana-f, it 



approaches in size, it differs in the 10-partite perianth, the nature of the corona 



faucis, the non-immersion of the anthers in cavities, their internal structure. 



and the absence of the remarkable processes of the discoid apex of the column. 



From Brugmansia it differs in the imbricated aestivation of the 10-partite 

 perianth, the presence of a well-developed corona faucis, the definite anthers 

 opening by a single pore, and somewhat also in the shape of the head of the 

 column. 



* Although viscidity might conjecturally be an impediment, practically it does not appear to be so. 

 Even' one who has dissected Asclepiadeous, or particularly Orchideous flowers, must be aware of the 

 tenacity with which the pollen apparatus generally adheres to the knife : so that it would appear more 

 likely to remain sticking to the legs or body of the insects than to separate from them, on coming into 

 contact with the comparatively lax viscid secretion of the stigma. 



t Annals of Natural History, vol. ix. No. 59, for July 1842. 



