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mands further notice than wecouldthere bestow on it. Dr. Robert 
Brown lias given an interesting paper on the subject, and the 
singularity of the plant demands that we should supply our 
readers with an account of its peculiar structure. “It is a par- 
asite, growing in woods, on the roots and stems of those immense 
climbers, generally of the genus Vitis, which are attached, like 
cables, to the largest trees in the forest. The flower constitutes 
the whole of the plant, there being neither leaves, roots, nor a 
stem. It is a true parasite, growing out of another plant in the man- 
ner of the. mistletoe, and not on the decayed surface of plants, as 
the common fern on the trunks of old oak pollards. The breadth 
of a full-grown flower exceeds three feet; and the petals, which are 
subrotund, measure twelve inches from the base to the apex, and it 
is about a foot from the insertion of the one petal to the oppo- 
siteone; what is considered thenectarium would hold twelve pints; 
the pistils, which are abortive, are as large as cows’ horns, and 
the weight of the whole is calculated to be about fifteen pounds. 
The flow er, fully blown, was discovered in a jungle, grow ing close 
to the ground under the bushes, with a swarm of flies hovering 
over the nectary, and apparently laying their eggs in its sub- 
stance. The colour of the five petals is a brick red, covered 
with protuberances of a yellowish white. The smell is that of 
tainted beef. The structure of Rafflesia is too imperfectly known 
to admit of determining its place in the natural system ; but Mr. 
Brown is inclined to think it will be found to approach either to 
Asarinse or Passiflorea;. Its first appearance is that of a round 
nob, proceeding from a crack or hollow in the stem or root. 
This knob, when cut through, exhibits the infant flower envelo- 
ped in numerous bracteal sheaths, which successively open and 
wither away as the flower enlarges, until, at the time of full ex- 
pansion, there are but a very few remaining, which have some- 
what the appearance of a broken calyx. It takes three months 
from the first appearance of the bud to the full expansion of the 
flower. The fruit has not yet been seen by botanists, but is said 
by the natives, to be a many-seeded berry. The female flower 
differs little in appearance from the male, further than being 
w ithout the anthers of the latter. 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 
