10 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



C July 4, 186* 



termmal flowers left blooming alone. The one was a seedling from 

 a cnriouB old plant, Mathiola feuestralis, crossed with the common 

 •garden Stock, il. iucana, but it had uot yet flowered ; the other was 

 the produce of one of the handsome rose-coloured Gladioli, croseed 

 with the brilliuut scarlet African upcciea, Gladiolus cardinalis. It 

 was interesting in this case to be able to coutirm an obsf nation made 

 by the late Dean of Manchester, to the effect that the splendid colours 

 of cardinalis were not fully transmitted to the offspring, which the 

 Dean attributed to the interbreeding having taken place in a cooler 

 climate. The influence of cardinalis, however, had produced a favour- 

 able effect in the present instance. The seedlings appeared to be early 

 .summer flowers, with the large and handsome habit of the autunmals. 

 The two objects in question were authentic hybrids between two known 

 plants, and he (Major Clarke) urged his horticultural brethren to lose 

 no opportunity of bringing such instances to the Tuesduv meetings. 

 No person who had not really worked at seientilie subjects enuld have 

 a notion how valuable such contributions were — valuable becuuse they 

 were facts. A cross which might seem comparatively unimportant, 

 being authentic, might supply a link in the chain of the evidences in 

 an important investigation. "I call upon you," said Major Clarke, 

 *' to bring to these meetings objects of scientific interest of every land, 

 whether the results of individual experiment, or gleanings from' hill or 

 valley, river or forest, illustrations of nature's -wild and wondrous 

 changes. Such objects are too rarely seen on the tables of the Horti- 

 cultural Society. Why is this ? I believe because the horticultural 

 mind, improved as it is in the present day, has not been sufficiently 

 turned in this dii-ection. In the early part of the season the obser- 

 vation was made by my friend, Mr. Ba'teman, that there was a lack of 

 horticulturists at the present day. Now, this remark was, I believe, 

 ntterly misunderstood by some of his auditors or readers. We have 

 clever gardeners, both in the nurserj- profession, and in the gardens of 

 our country gentlemen, so clever that no couutiy on tlie face of the 

 earth can find their equal ; but the mau who will devote time and 



money during a lifetime to legitimate hortienltnral experiment, both 

 within and without this Society, who will from time to time take the 

 trouble to produce hit- results in this room, who will initiate imd perfect 

 revolutions in our art, who will raise generation after generatiou of the 

 fruits of the earth, Beaaou by season, improving and improving — thin 

 man will have deserved well of his fellowH. These are the men alluded 

 to by my friend, Mr. Batemau, und I believe with him that they are 

 rare. But such men are rising, must be rising, in this almost over- 

 intellectual age. " 



Mr. Bateman prefaced his lecture on Eafilesia AmohU, by remark- 

 ing that when any one gave a lecture, or put his name to a paper read 

 before any learned bociety, it was generally supposed that there wan 

 some fresh information to communicate, or progress to report, but 

 he had nothing to add to what had been previously known ; his 

 object was simply to recall attention to what was the wouder of bo- 

 tanists — a plant of which an account was published in the *" Trans- 

 actions " of the Linnean Society, in 1820. and which was called 

 Rafflesia Amoldi. The generic name was given in compliment to Sii 

 Stamford Raffles, and the specific mime was in honour of its discoverer. 

 Dr. Arnold, who was attached to Sir Stamford Kuflless mission to 

 Sumatra, and who. about a fortnight after its discoven-, fell a victim 

 to fever caught in the woods where it gi-ew. The biogi-apher of this 

 plant, the celebrated Brown, who wrote an accoimt of it in the "Lin- 

 nean Transactions," had also piissed away. It appears that after 

 having resided awhile in Sumatra. Dr. Arnold had ventured some way 

 into the woods, when one of the Maliiy senants came running to him 

 with wonder in his eyes, and siiid, " Come with me, Sir, come, ;i 

 flower, very large, beautiful ! wonderful ! " He immediately went with 

 the man about 100 yards into the jungle. The rest of the party 

 hastened on, and here, growing apparently on a stem, was a flower a 

 yard across. The whole flower was of veiT thick substance, the petals 

 and neetaiy being in but few places less than a quarter of an inch 

 thick, and in some places three-quarters of an inch ; the substance of 





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'mj^ 



u^ldi '.\ith bud, growing on the stem ol a Cissus. 



it was very succulent. When Dr. Arnold fii"st saw it, a swarm of 

 flies was hovering over the mouth of the nectary, and apparently 

 laying their eggs in the substance of it. It had precisely the smell 

 of tainted beef. The centi-e of the nectarium gave rise to a large pistil, 

 at the top of which were about twenty processes, somewhat cnn'ed and 

 sharp at the end, resembling a cow's bom. Now for the dimensions, 

 which are the most astonishing part of the flower. It measured a full 

 yard across ; the petals which were sub-rotund, being 12 inches from 

 the base to the apex, and it being about a foot from the insertion of 

 the one petal to the opposite one. The nectarium was estimated to hold 

 twelve pints, and the weight was about 15 lbs. In order to ensure 

 the size being accm*ately taken, four large sheets of paper were pinned 

 together, and cut to the precise size of the flower. The soil whei'e it 

 was found was veiy rich, and covered with the excrements of animals. 

 A guide from the interior of the connti-y iufonned Dr. Araold that such 

 flowers were rare, but that he had seen several, and that the natives 

 called them Krubiit. What was this wonderful plant ? Was it a fungus 

 or an ordinary fioweiing plant ? Brown with his usual sagacity decided 

 that it was not a fungus but a true root parasite ; and Mr. Bateman 

 then explained at some length the distinction between parasites and epi- 

 phytes. Dr. Arnold had thought that the stem on which the flower 

 was produced, was the root or stem of the Rafflesia, but it was the 

 stem of a Cissus or Vine which wound round the trunk of a tropical 

 tree. According to Brown, it takes three months from the first appear- 

 ance of the bud to the full expansion of the flower, and the latter 

 appears but once a-year, at the conclusion of the niiny season. The 

 plant " has no stem of its own, but is parasitic on the roots and stems 

 of a ligneous species of Cissus where it appeal's to take its origin in 

 some crack or hollow of the stem, and soon shows itself in the form 

 of a round knob," at first like an egg, then resembling a Drumhead 

 Cabbage, and finally becoming a flower such as represented and de- 

 scribed. It was not enough, ailded Mr. Bateman, to see a flower 



represented in that room, but it was an object of natural ambition to 

 have the plant. Mr. Loudon, when he diew a phiu for the Birming- 

 ham Botanic Garden, had a tropical -house in the middle of the garden 

 in which he hoped Rafflesia Amoldi would succeed, but thirty years had 

 elapsed and it was not yet in the country, though it ought to be in the 

 stoves of Kew. He had no doubt it would be flowered in this country, 

 but whether such a result would be obtained in the lifetime of the 

 present generation of horticulturists he could not venture to say, 

 unless the Chairman would use his parliameutaiy influence to induce 

 the Government to take some steps in the matter. It appeared from 

 an article in a Belgian periodical, that Rafflesia had been flowered in 

 Java. The article stated that the Rafflesia Amoldi " is parasitic on the 

 roots of certain species of Cissus in the isles near the Suuda Strait, 

 especially those of Cissus scariosa. M. Teysmaun has tried, in the 

 garden of Buitenzorg, in the isle of Java, to sow the plant which pro- 

 duces these gigantic flowers on the roots of Cissus, after ha\'ing made 

 an incision to dinde the bark. The experiment has been perfectly 

 successful, and at the end of eighteen months, M. Teysmann has had 

 the satisfaction of seeing many flower-buds of Rafflesia burst from the 

 roots, whose size varied from that of a Pea to that of a middle-sized 

 Apple. From the obsen-ations which the Dutch gardener has had an 

 opportunity of maldug on spontaneous Rafflesiic. these buds ^^ill require 

 a year or more before expanding the flowers, which are frequently not 

 less than a metre in diameter. It has also established this singular 

 fact, that the parasites spring some distance above or below the ]>oint 

 at which the seeds were inserted. We may then hope to obtain in a 

 cultivated state this remai-kable vegetable."' Mr. Bateman concluded 

 by urging all who hud friends in Java, to take steps to send home this 

 remarkable plant ; and moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, 

 who in returning thanks expressed the gratification which he felt in 

 attending the Society's meetings whenever it was pos^iible for him to 

 do so. 



