i 
[. 
du 
: 
- It will perhaps not be unacceptable to 
our readers, if I here subjoin some extracts 
from the admirable history of the male 
plant in the 13th volume of the Transac- 
tions of the Linnean Society, and a very 
reduced figure of it, done from the same 
work, together with some account of a se- 
cond species, discovered by Dr. Blume, 
and published in his rare and costly work, 
the Flora Jave. 
: The accounts that first reached England 
of the Rafflesia, were communicated in a 
letter to the late Sir Joseph Banks, extracts 
from which Mr. Brown has published, of 
Sumatra, with the following remarks :— 
“This gigantic flower, which forms the 
subject of the present communication, was 
discovered in 1818, on Sir Stamford’s first 
journey from Bencoolen into the interior. 
In that journey he was accompanied by a 
Naturalist of great zeal and acquirements, 
the late Dr. Joseph Arnold, a member of 
this Society, from whose researches, aided 
by the friendship and influence of the go- 
vernor, in an island so favourably situated 
and so imperfectly explored as Sumatra, 
the greatest expectations had been formed. 
But these expectations were never to be 
realized; for the same letter which gave 
the account of the gigantic flower, brought 
also the S of Dr. Arnold’s death. 
“ As in this letter many important parti- 
culars are stated, respecting the plant which 
I am about to describe, and a just tribute 
is paid to the merits of the Naturalist by 
whom it was discovered, I shall introduce 
= account by the sete extract :— 
; ncoolen, Aag. 1818. 
- “ You will lament to um that we have 
lost Dr, Arnold: he fella sacrifice to his 
exertions on my first tour into the interior, 
_ and died of fever about a fortnight ago. 
dat ‘Iti is impossible I can do justice to his 
me ory by any ica encomiums Í may 
Pass on his character; he was in every 
(ing what he should have been, devoted 
aat onobalaaats: 
“T had hoped, instead of the melancholy 
ent I ibe me to communicate, that we 
been able to send jouan ac- 
DESCRIPTION OF MALAYAN PLANTS. 
261 
count of our many interesting discoveries 
from the hand of Dr. Arnold, e pe- 
riod of his death he had not done much; 
all was arrangement for extensive acquire- 
ments in every branch of Natural History. 
I shall go on with the collections as well 
as I can, and hereafter communicate with 
you respecting them, and in the mean time 
content myself with giving you the best 
account I am able of the largest and most - 
magnificent flower, which, so far as we 
know, has yet been described. Fortunately 
I have found part of.a letter from poor 
Arnold to some unknown friend, written 
while he was on board ship, and a short 
time before his death, from which the fol- 
lowing is an extract— 
** After giving an account of our journey 
to Passummah, he thus proceeds— 
* < But here (at Pulo Lebbar, on the 
Manna River, two days' journey inland of 
Manna) I rejoice to tell you I happened to 
meet with what I consider as the greatest 
prodigy of the vegetable world. I had 
ventured some way from 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 immedi- 
ately went with the man about a hundred 
yards in 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 ca 
it to the hut. I therefore seized the Ma- 
lay’s parang, (a sort of instrument like a 
woodman’s chopping hook,) and finding 
that it sprang from a small root which ran 
horizontally, (about as large as two fingers 
or a little more,) I soon detached it and 
removed it to our hut. To tell you the 
truth, had I been alone, and had there 
been no witnesses, I should, I think, have 
been fearful of mentioning the dimensions 
of this flower, so much does it exceed 
every flower I have ever seen or heard of; 
but I had Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles 
with me, and a Mr. Palsgrave, a respecta- 
equally astonished with myself, yet bad 
able to testify as to the truth. 
