-85- 
the lava-streaked sides of the huge bare crater, and the thin 
little wisp of smoke that showed there was still life in the mount a i 
binggalang, on the other side of us, was simply boiling with 
clouds, stirred by the high wind, and emptying some of them in 
black fury on the land below. Again we were lucky and no rain fell 
on us. 
n. 
J f^'iS? B ^ 1J - noticed s sigh in the hotel office informing 
the world tha t Rafflesir was now in bloom, only fifteen kms. away, 
so we dedicated to-u.orrow to seeing the world's largest flower. 
June 9 - 
We had intended to start for home today, but the weather was 
brci all morn-ng, and we did want to stop on the wav and see Rafflesia 
arnoldi. After a trip to the Zoo and a visit to the market we 
decided to stay over another day in Fort de Kock. 
After lunch the sun came out, and we dashed off to Batane 
Paloehpoeh, the village near which the famous flower was blooming. 
£ big sign across the road said "Stop! Rafflesia"' and a notice 
beside the village store explained that the "Natuurmonument " was 
at its height. We walked in through a Meningkabau village, past a 
rice field, and climed a fairly steep hill. Nothing could have been 
m a more inconvenient place for our ardent photogra hers. After 
ascending the mountain part way through a dense thicket of second- 
growth, we came out in a little cleared place, and at the foot of 
the very slippery path was the Eafflesia. One was afraid to go 
down the patn near enough to see it for fear of sliding right into 
it boots first and ruining it completely. Gingerly we crept down 
however, and had our first view of this r -mark able plant. It i* 
a monstrous red fungus-like growth, lying flat on the ground, with 
no leaves and no visible stem. The rust red surface is blotched 
!^ h + r i£e ? Sp °J?, of orange. Each petal is about a foot in diameter, 
^nd the calyx, like a huge bowl, has spikes on the inside for pistil' 
and stamens. The petals are about a quarter of an inch thick, and 
tne diameter of the whole blossom is close to forty inches. It lasts 
only two days, ana then collapses into a circular pile of carrion- 
liJse decay. Already carrion flies, deceived by the odor which we 
could not even detect, were laying their eggs on the petal. It is 
.like nothing on earth, and it is hard to believe that it is a natural 
phenomenon, and not the product of some giant's distorted fancv 
tower down we saw two buds that had not yet opened, hard 
round objects about the si e of croquet balls, and a brown ring of 
decay that marked the spot where Bafflesia bloo.ed last. It is curiou* 
to think that probably many of them are bloo ing in Sumatra's jungles 
to-night, and yet they are usually so inaccessible that only the 
fortunate few, who travel near some spot like this on the very day the 
ilower opens, ever see one. ' " 
While Williams and the Brues were photographing it, with 
movies, color plates, flash bulbs, miniature cameras, and all the 
equipment they could thin! of, Bill and I did some collecting. I found 
a curious spiny beetle, and Bill got some more horn flies. Email 
boys collected, and were a great nuisance, turning over stones before 
we could get to them, breaking up all the ' hollowtwigs that might have 
contained ant nests, and finally scaring away a fine column of 
ienictus that Bill wanted - right near a bridge where he could have 
