16 Mr. Brown’s Account of a new Genus of Plants , 
respecting the limb of the column under which the anther* are 
inserted; namely, whether it is to be viewed as an imperfectly 
developed stigma, or as made up of processes of the united fila¬ 
ments. In support of the former supposition the nearly similar 
relation of the sexual organs in certain Asarince ma}^ be adduced; 
and in favour of the latter, not only their disposition and form in 
other plants of the same natural family, but also the vascular struc¬ 
ture of the column itself; the limb deriving its vessels from branches 
of the same fasciculi that supply the anther* ( plate 20. /. 1.). If 
this latter view, however, of the origin of the limb were admitted, 
it might be considered not altogether improbable, that even the 
corniculate processes of the disk of the column, each of which has 
a central vascular cord, are of the same nature. For if, on the 
other hand, these processes are to be regarded as imperfect styles 
or stigmata, their number and disposition would indicate a struc¬ 
ture of ovarium to be found only in families to which it is not 
probable at least that Rajflesia can be nearly related, as Anno- 
nacece and the singular genus Eupomatia*, which I have placed 
near that natural order. 
Another point to be inquired into connected with the same 
subject is, in what manner the impregnation of the female dower 
is likely to be effected by anther* so completely concealed as 
those of Rajflesia seem to be in all states of the dower ; for it does 
not appear either that they can ever become exposed by a change 
in the direction of the limb under which they are inserted, or even 
that this part of the column in any stage projects beyond the tube 
of the perianthium. 
It is probable, therefore, that the assistance of insects is abso¬ 
lutely necessary; and it is not unlikely, both as connected with 
that mode of impregnation and from the structure of the anthera 
itself, that in Rajflesia the same economy obtains as in the sta- 
* Flinders’s t or/ttgc, ii. p. 597- tuh- 2. 
mm a 
