22 BOTANY 



large clusters on the thin stems, are quite normal. One 

 of the most interesting cases of a reduced structure 

 is the plant body of the giant-flowered Rafflesia. This 

 has the largest flower in the world, and it appears to 

 have no vegetative body at all ! That is because it is 

 so completely parasitic that it gets the whole of its 

 nourishment from a host on which it preys, so that 

 it can afford to reduce its own vegetative body to the 

 minimum, viz., a series of white fungus-like threads 

 which are enclosed in the body of the host. In this 

 plant roots, stems, and leaves are all gone except for the 

 modified leaves of the flower. 



