ACCOUNT OF A NEW GENUS OF PLANTS, t^i 



RAFFLE SI A 



Ptead to tlie Liimean Society, Jiiuc 30tli, 1820. 



It is now nearly eighteen months since some account of 

 a flower of extraordinary size was received by my lamented 

 friend and patron the late revered President of the Royal 

 Society, from Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of the East 

 India Company's estabhshments in Sumatra. 



This gigantic flower, which forms tlie subject of the pre- 

 sent communication, was discovered in 1818 on Sir Stam- 

 ford's first journey from Bencoolen into the interior. In 

 that journey he was accom[)anied by a naturalist of great 

 zeal and acquirements, the late Dr. Joseph Arnold, a mem- 

 ber of this Society, from whose researches, aided by the 

 friendship and influence of the Governor, in an island so 

 favorably situated and so imperfectly explored as Sumatra, 

 the greatest expectations had been formed. But these ex- 

 pectations were never to be realised ; for the same letter 

 which gave the account of the gigantic flower, brought also 

 the intelHgence of Dr. Arnold's death. 



As in this letter many important particulars are stated 

 respecting the plant which I am about to describe, and a 

 just tribute is paid to the merits of the naturalist l)y whom 

 it was discovered, I shall introduce my account by the 

 following extract. 



