THE EQUATORIAL ZONE. 277 



There are some other vegetable curiosities with which we 

 feel a great desire to make acquaintance before we leave 

 the Indian Archipelago ; those monstrous productions, 

 namely, which are to be met with there amongst the para- 

 sitical plants, which grow on the roots of other plants and 

 at a distance look like gigantic flowers, though on a nearer 

 acquaintance we think they are more like mushrooms in. 

 masquerade. One of these, called the Giant- flower (Eafflesia 

 Arnoldi], is three feet in diameter, the great thick petals 

 (if they may be called so) measuring twelve inches from the 

 tip to the base, the centre twelve inches, and the petals on 

 the other side twelve inches, the general colour being brick- 

 red or salmon-tint. The one whose dimensions are here 

 given was seen in Sumatra by Dr. Arnold, and named after 

 him and Sir Stamford Raffles, who also witnessed this won- 

 der. There are also other kinds of these singular produc- 

 tions to be met with here, called Bntgmansia.* 



As we sail on through the Spice Islands, the aroma which 

 fills the air, combined with the glaring sun, is overpowering 

 to our unaccustomed senses ; but before we leave this part of 



* As there are two distinct and very opposite genera of the same name, it 

 may be as well to add, that the parasitical plant here spoken of is Brugmansia 

 (Blume). 



