named Raffles!a. 
.‘3 
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 1 
have ever seen or heard of; but I had Sir Stamford and Lady 
Raffies with me, and a Mr. Palsgrave, a respectable man resi¬ 
dent at Manna, who, though equally astonished with myself, yet 
are able to testify as to the truth. 
“ ‘ The whole dower was of a very thick substance, the petals 
and nectary being in but few places less than a quarter of an 
inch thick, and in some places three-quarters of an inch; the 
substance of it was very succulent. When I first saw it a swarm 
of dies were hovering over the mouth of the nectary, and appa¬ 
rently laying their eggs in the substance of it. It had precisely 
the smell of tainted beef. The calyx consisted of several roundish, 
dark-brown, concave leaves, which seemed to be indefinite in 
number, and were unequal in size. There were five petals at¬ 
tached to the nectary, which were thick, and covered with pro¬ 
tuberances of a yellowish-white, varying in size, the interstices 
being of a brick-red colour. The nectarium was cyathiform, 
becoming narrower towards the top. The centre of the necta¬ 
rium gave rise to a large pistil, which I can hardly describe, at the 
top of which were about twenty processes, somewhat curved and 
sharp at the end, resembling a cow’s horns ; there were as many 
smaller very short processes. A little more than half-way down, 
a brown cord about the size of common whip-cord, but quite 
smooth, surrounded what perhaps is the germen, and a little 
below it was another cord somewhat moniliform. 
“ ‘ Now for the dimensions, which are the most astonishing 
part of the flower. It measured a full yard across ; the petals, 
which were subrotund, being twelve inches from the base to the 
apex, and it being about a foot from the insertion of the one petal 
b 2 to 
