17 
grow only male plants; anyhow six male individuals and not 
one female one were found here. ; 
The growing places A and D were mixed ones, and in the 
last of these I found a couple of fecundated fruits. 
As long as the eggs are not fertilized, they retain their snow 
white colour, but after fecundation they successively get a 
sparkling, brown colour. 
The ripening of the seeds seems to be a very slow process. 
In any case on the 14th April 1920 I found a fruit, that mea- 
sured 15 cM. across at the base and was 7 eM. high, and when 
on the 22nd July I cut it off on leaving the country the seeds 
were very light brown and apparently not yet quite ripe. Yet 
I took them to Buitenzorg, where an attempt will be made to 
implant them upon a vine in the gardens. The seeds proved to 
be unripe. 
Another fruit, whose seeds were dark brown and apparently 
ripe, was found by me on the 14th April 1920 and proved to 
measure 20 cM. across at the base and 16 at the top. Its height 
was 14 cM. 
When the perigony of the dower has died, the processus of 
the dise very soon dry up and disappear, and if no fertilization 
has taken place, no appreciable further growth of the column 
seems to follow. If on the contrary the seeds are fertilised, the 
fruit steadily increases its volume and can reach the dimensions 
stated above. Meanwhile its superficial layers assume a spongy 
character, keeping the ovary moist, even during dry seasons: 
Sections ecuah the fruit and especially vertical ones will show, 
that the septa in the ovary not only absolutely but even 
relatively are very much thicker than in the virginal stage, 
and also that the upper and side walls of the ovary are very 
thin as compared with those in the young flower. 
SPREADING OF THE SEEDS. 
The most interesting and the most doubtful questions to be 
investigated in the biology of the Rajflesia are these: How do 
the seeds enter into new, not yet infected vines, and how do they 
