THE NATURALIST AND COTLECTOR 
5 
No one would have thought of find¬ 
ing in Sumatra a giant ally of the lit¬ 
tle “wake robin;” but such a discovery 
came to Beccari, and amazed him 
equally as much as the rafflesia of 
Dr. Arnold. Beccari also heard the 
rumor from the natives of a flower 
higher than a man, and which at cer¬ 
tain times gave out an odor that was 
fatal to man and beast. The Italian 
naturalist did not believe the latter, 
and determined to make a vigorous 
search for the man-killing plant. 
Finally, deep in the forest, he came 
upon it. It resembled a lily, but a 
giant; and from the center of the flower 
rose a spadix that was six feet in height 
—or as tall as a large man, The stalked 
leaves were ten feet long, the whole 
peculiar plant taking up an area of 
forty-five square feet. The diameter 
of the spathe was about three feet, 
bell shaped, with serrated edges of a 
delicate green tint, while upon the 
outside it was a rich purple hue. The 
odor was not poisonous, but it was well 
calculated to keep both man and beast 
at a distance. 
A few years ago a friend of Beccari, 
the MarcheseCorsi-Salviati of Florence, 
presented a potted tuber of this plant 
weig'hing fifty-seven pounds to the 
royal gardens at Kew, England, and 
one night it bloomed, to the astonish¬ 
ment and delight of those who saw it. 
The plant is called the giant-arum 
(nmos-phallus titanum ). 
Travelers who visited or passed the 
Cape Negro country of Africa often 
heard from the natives of a plant that, 
was part spider and that, growing, 
threw its legs about in continual strug¬ 
gles to escape. It was the good for¬ 
tune of Dr. Welwitsch to discover the 
origin of the legend. Strolling along 
through a wind-swept table-land coun¬ 
try, he came upon a plant that rested 
low upon the ground, but had two 
enormous leaves that blew and twisted 
obout in the wind like serpents; in 
fact it looked, as the natives had said, 
like a gigantic spider. Its stem was 
four feet across and but one foot high. 
It had but two leaves in reality, that 
were six or eight feet long, and split 
up by the wind so that they resembled 
ribbons. This is probably the most 
extraordinary tree known. It grows 
for nearly if not quite a century, but 
never upward beyond a foot, simply 
slowly expanding until it reaches the 
diameter given, looking’ in its adult 
state like a singular stool on the plain 
from ten to eighteen feet in circum¬ 
ference. 
When the wind came rushing in 
from the sea, lifting the curious ribbon¬ 
like leaves and tossing them about, it 
almost seemed to the discoverer that 
the strange plant had suddenly become 
imbued with life and was struggling 
to escape. When a description and 
picture of the plant was sent to Eng¬ 
land it was, like many other discoveries, 
discredited; but soon the plant itself 
was received, and to-day Welwitschia 
mirabilis is well known to botanists, 
and stands first among the unique pro¬ 
ductions of the vegetable world. 
The giants of the grass tribe are the 
bamboos, and they attain a height of 
over one hundred feet. The rattan, 
which does not grow very high, makes 
up in length, attaining, according to 
Rumphius. in some instances a length 
of 1300 feet. The ordinary cane of 
commerce attains a length of 500 feet. 
The bamboo must have been the bean¬ 
stalk of legend, as it has been known 
to grow one foot in twenty-four hours 
in a Glasgow hot-house, and in Chinese 
jungles it often grows from two to two 
and a half feet in this time, the greatest 
increase being observed in the night. 
