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An Account of a new Genus of Plants, named, Raffles!a. 
By Robert Brown, Esq., F.R.S. Libr. L.S. 
[From the Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. xiii.j 
It is now nearly eighteen months since some account of a Flower 
of extraordinary size was received by my lamented friend and 
patron the late revered President of the Royal Society, from Sir 
Stamford Raffles, Governor of the East India Company’s esta¬ 
blishments in Sumatra. 
This gigantic Flower, which forms the subject of the present 
communication, was discovered in 1818 on Sir Stamford’s first 
journey from Bencoolen into the interior. In that journey he was 
accompanied by a naturalist of great zeal and acquirements, the 
late Dr. Joseph Arnold, a member of this Society, from whose 
researches, aided by the friendship and influence of the Governor, 
in an island so favourably situated and so imperfectly explored 
as Sumatra, the greatest expectations had been formed. But 
these expectations were never to be realized ; for the same letter 
which gave the account of the gigantic Flower, brought also the 
intelligence of Dr. Arnold’s death. 
As in this letter many important particulars are stated respect¬ 
ing the plant which I am about to describe, and a just tribute is 
paid to the merits of the naturalist by whom it was discovered, I 
shall introduce my account by the following extract. 
“ Bencoolen, 13th August, 1818. 
“You will lament to hear that we have lost Dr. Arnold : he 
fell a sacrifice to his exertions on my first tour into the interior, 
and died of fever about a fortnight ago. 
B 
“ It 
