named Rafflesia. 
27 
• In these points the structure of Rafflesia remains to be ascer¬ 
tained. In the mean time, however, if it be considered as a pa¬ 
rasite, and as likely to agree with the other plants of the tribe in 
the state of its embryo, it may be remarked, with reference to 
the question of its affinities, that such a structure would approxi¬ 
mate it rather to Asarince than to Fassijlorece. 
My principal and concluding observation relates to the modes 
of union between the stock and the parasite. These vary in the 
different genera and species of the tribe, which may be divided 
into such as are entirely dependent on the stock during the whole 
of their existence, and such as in their more advanced state pro¬ 
duce roots of their own. 
Among those that are in all stages absolutely parasitic, to 
which division Rafflesia would probably belong, very great dif¬ 
ferences also exist in the mode of connection. In some of those 
that I have examined, especially two species of Balanophora *, 
the nature of this connection is such, as can only be explained on 
the supposition 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, the connection between the tiower of 
Rafflesia and the root from which it springs, though considerably 
diff erent from any that I have yet met with, may also be explained. 
But until either precisely the same kind of union shall have been 
observed in plants known to be parasitic, or, which would be 
* Balanophora fungosa of Forster, and B.dioica, an unpublished species, lately sent 
by Dr. Wallich from Nepaul, where it was discovered by Dr. Hamilton, and also found 
in Java by Dr. Horsfield. 
E 2 
still 
