14 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 



SuprosED Fall of Sulphur. — Captain Hufty communicated to the Academy of 

 Sciences an account of a singular phenomenon which happened at Olerand, in the de- 

 partment of the Basses Pyrenees. On the 28th April 1835, there occurred a heavy 

 fall of snow, which next day was covered with a fine yellow dust, having all the ap- 

 pearance of sulphur. The only probable explanation which can be given of this phe- 

 nomenon is, that the dust must have been the pollen proceeding from the blossoms of 

 numerous pine trees in the vicinity, and which flower at that season. This pollen is 

 of a highly inflammable nature, and m.ight easily be mistaken for sulphur. 



Tulips. — The sura of L.GIO has lately been given for the bulb of a new variety of 

 tulip, called the " Citadel of Antwerp." This enormous sum was paid by M. Vander- 

 ninck, of Amsterdam, a florist, but formerly a captain in the Dutch navy. 



Food of Silkworms. — There has lately been presented to the Institute of France 

 a memoir on the leaves of the Madura Auraniiaca, which, it is conceived, may re- 

 place those of the mulberry, for the food of silkworms, in climates wherein mul- 

 berry trees do not thrive. They stand the spring frosts, at Geneva, Paris, Turin, 

 and Strasbourg, where they have been successfully cultivated for six years past. This 

 tree is a native of North America, and is abundant on the banks of the Missouri, in the 

 country of the Natchez. 



The Krueut, or Great Flower of Subiatra. — This very wonderful vegetable 

 production has been named, in scientific language, the Bafflesia Arnoldi. Its 

 generic name is in honour of the late Sir Stamford Raffles, governor of Sumatra, and 

 founder of the Zoological Society, and its specific name in memory of Dr Arnold, who 

 discovered it in 1818. 



In writing on this subject, Dr Arnold says, " At Pulo Lebbar, on the Manna 

 Ptiver, I rejoice to tell you, I happened to meet with what I consider the greatest 

 prodigy of the vegetable world. I had ventm-ed some way beyond the party, when 

 one of the Malay servants came running to me, with wonder in his eyes, and said, 

 ' Come with me, Sir, come! a flower very large, beautiful, wonderful!' I went with 

 the man about a hundred yards into the jungle, and he pointed to a flower growing 

 close to the ground, under the bushes, which was truly astonishing. My first impulse 

 was to cut it up, and carry it to the hut : I therefore seized the I^Ialay's parang (a 

 sort of instrument like a woodman's chopping-hook) ; and finding that it sprang from 

 a small root, which run horizontally (about as large as two fingers or a little more), I 

 soon detached it, and removed it to our hut." The following is a representation of 

 the full blown flower. 



The structure of this plant is too imperfectly known to admit of determining its 

 place in the natural system. That learned botanist, Mr Brown, however, thinks it 

 will be found to approach near to Asarince^ or to the passiflorecE, or passion flowers. Its 

 first appearance is that of a round knob, proceeding from a crack or hollow in the stem 

 or root, as represented in the following cut. Fig. 1. 



The Krubut is a parasite, growing in the woods, on the roots and stems of those 

 immense chmbing plants, generally of the genus vitis (or vine), which are attached, 

 like enormous cables, to the largest trees of the forest. The flower constitutes the 

 whole of this plant, there being no leaves, and neither roots nor stems. Thus, the 

 plant forms a complete anomaly in the history of vegetables. It grows out of an- 

 other plant in the manner of the mistletoe, and not on the decayed surface of plants, 

 as is the case with the common fern on the trunks of old oak pollards. In the latter 

 case, the proper term is not parasite^ but epiphyte* 



The flowers of this extraordinary plant are of one sex; and the male only has yet 

 been sent to England. The breadth of a full flower exceeds three feet from the mar- 

 gin of the one petal d to that of the other d; the petals, or leaves of the flower, are 

 roundish, and measure twelve inches from the base to the apex. It is about a foot 

 from the insertion of one petal to the opposite one; and that part which is considered 

 the nectarium, or central cup of the flower, would hold twelve pints of liquid. The 

 pistils, which are abortive, and as large as cows' horns, are represented in fig 2. h 6. 



The weight of the whole flower is calculated at about fifteen pounds. It is of a 

 very thick substance, the petals and nectary being in few places less than a quarter of 

 an inch thick, and in some parts three-quarters of an inch; it is succulent in texture, 

 but of a firm fleshy consistence. The flower, fully blown, was discovered in a 

 jungle of Sumatra, growing close to the ground, under the bushes, with a swarm of 

 flies hovering over the nectary, and appai-ently layin"; their eggs in its substance. The 

 colour of the five petals, or flower leaves, of which it is composed, is a brick-red, 

 covered with protuberances of a yellowish white. The inside of the cup is of an in- 

 tense purple, and more or less densely yellow, with soft flexible spines of the same 

 colour. Towards the mouth, it is marked with numerous depressed spots of the 

 purest white, contrasting strongly mth the purple of the surrounding substance, 

 which is considerably elevated on the lower side. The smell is that of tainted beef. 



* From (s-^/) cpi, upon, and ((puTO-/) phi/ton, a plant. 



This knob, when cut through, exhibits the infant flower enveloped in numerous 

 bracteal sheaths. These successively open and wither away as the flower enlarges, 

 until at the time of full expansion, when there are but a very few reiuaining, present- 

 ing somewhat the appearance of a broken calyx, as represented in fig. 2, a a. The fe- 

 male flower differs but little in appearance fi'om the male, further than in being with- 

 out the anthers, fig. 2, c. Fig. 3 represents one of the anthers a httle larger than the 

 natural size, and shewing a section of the cavity in which it is immersed. It takes 

 three months from the first appearance of the bud to the full expansion of the flower. 

 The blossoms decay not long after their expansion, and the seeds (sporce) are raised 

 with the pulpy mass. The fruit has not yet been seen by botanists, but is said by the 

 natives to be a many-seeded berry. 



IMr Brown has made some interesting observations on the Raffiesia Arnoldi^ where- 

 in he remarks, that it is not common for parasitic plants to fix indiscriminately on the 

 roots or branches of their stocks, as is supposed to be the case with the genus Rafflc- 

 sia; and observes, that "plants parasitic on roots are chiefly distinguishable by the 

 imperfect development of their leaves, and the entire absence of green colour ; that 

 their seeds are small, and their embryo not only minute, but apparently imperfectly 

 developed." Mr Loudon says, that "the modes of union between a parasite and 

 its supporter, or stock, vary in different genera and species of this class of vegetables. 

 Some, as the mistletoe and Rafflesia, depend on the stock for nourishment during the 

 whole of their existence; others, as the common broom-rape, are originated in the 

 soil; and afterwards, when they have attached themselves to their stock, the original 

 roots die. Other parasites, again, eu'C originated on the stock, and in their more adt- 

 vanced state produce roots of their o^vn. In. some cases the nature of the connexion 

 between the parasite and the stock is such, as can only be explained on the supposi- 

 tion that the germinating seed of the parasite excites a specific action in the stock, 

 the result of which is the formation of a structure, either wholly or in part derived 

 from the root, and adapted to the support and protection of the undeveloped parasite; 

 analogous, therefore, to the production of galls by the puncture of insects. On this 

 supposition may be explained the connexion between the flowers of the genus Raffle- 

 sia, and the root from whence it springs." 



In Sumatra, all the vegetable productions seem to be on a gigantic scale. Sir 

 Stamford Raffles, after describing this great flower, says, " There is nothing more 

 striking in the Malayan forests than the grandeur of the vegetation. The magnitude 

 of the flowers, creepers, and trees, contrasts strikingly with the stunted, and I had 

 almost said, pigmy vegetation of England. Compared with om* fruit trees, your largest 

 oak is a mere dwarf. Here we have creepers and vines, entwining larger trees, and 

 hanging suspended for more than lOO feet, in girth not less than a man's body, and 

 many much thicker; the trees seldom under 100, and generally approaching 160 to 

 200 feet in height." 



The Knowle-Park Beech. — This most magnificent tree in Knowle-Park, Kent, 

 is the largest undecayed and entire beech in the kingdom. It was measured in Oc- 

 tober 1835, and the following ai-e its dimensions: — Circumference of the stem, at six 

 inches from the gromid, thirty-nine feet, five inches; at one foot, sis inches; thirty 

 feet, nine inches; four feet above, twenty-eight feet, one inch; seven feet above, 

 twenty-five feet ; one spiral limb, fourteen feet from the ground, fifteen feet. The 

 mean height of the tree, eighty-nine feet; and the circumference of ground covered 

 by branches, three-hundred and forty-seven feet. 



The Tallipot Tree is a native of the island of Ceylon, in the East Indies. This 

 tree is remarkable on account of its leaves, which are of such a size as to cover ten 

 men, and keep them from the rain ; they are very light, and travellers carry them from 

 place to place, and use them for huts. 



MINERALOGY. 



Discovert of Marble. — In the island of Tiree, on the west coast of Scotland, 

 an engineer has lately discovered some beautiful blocks of white marble, and inex- 

 haustible strata of variegated granite, in undulating streaks, of red, white, and 

 black. At the Ross, in the island of Mull, comparatively pure red and white granite 

 occurs in vast abundance. This is by far the most beautiful variety in this country, 

 or perhaps in the world. One of the many blocks forming the debris of an adjoining 

 mountain was found to measure 12 cubic feet to the ton — no less than 104 square 

 tons of workable granite 1 



Depth of Mines Kit's-puhl copper mine in the Tyrol mountains, 2764 feet; 



Samson's mine at Andrcasburgh,in the Hartz, 2220 feet; Valenciana mine, Guanaxu- 

 ato, Mexico, 21 70 feet; Pearce's shaft, consolidated mines, Cornwall, 1650 feet; Monk- 

 wearmouth colliery, Durham, 1600 feet; Wheal Abraham's mine, 1452 feet; Dol- 

 wath mine, Cornwall, 1410; and Erton mine, Staffordshire, 1380 feet. 



