50 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



are in appearance like large flowering mush- 

 rooms. Eafflesia Arnoldi, the most extraordi- 

 nary species, has blossoms nine feet in circum- 

 ference. The blossom is nearly all the plant, 

 there being no leaves, and scarcely any stems or 

 roots. Its buds are the size of an ordinary 

 cabbage, and the flower, which is of a brick- 

 red colour, smells of carrion. One, which was 

 weighed and measured, was found to be ten and 

 a half feet in circumference, fifteen pounds in 

 weight, and the cup in its centre would contain 

 a gallon and a half of liquid. The tropical 

 parts of America and the South Sea Islands 

 abound with various species of a different root- 

 parasite, (Balanopliora^ of the most varied forms, 

 and the richest colours. They greatly resemble 

 fungi, with short, fleshy, branched stems, and 

 the flower-stalks covered with tiled scales, and 

 the flowers collected into dense heads. 



In proportion to the rich beauty which a 

 tropical forest displays, crowded with the vari- 

 ous plants we have indicated, and with hun- 

 dreds of similar species, is its fearful grandeur 

 when agitated by a storm. " To be in such 

 a forest during a fiolent hurricane is de- 

 scribed as more fearful than to struggle with 

 the raging waves in the open sea, and even 

 far less violent storms produce sublime spec- 

 tacles. When the boisterous wind catches 

 hold of the tops of the gigantic trees of these 

 natural forests, and shakes the branches and 

 trunks against each other, the air is filled with 

 a fearful rushing, thundering, rattling, and 



