Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/391

Rh immense collections of the plants of Java, I find something which perhaps may approach to it ; at any rate the buds of the flower he has represented grow from the root precisely in the same manner ; his drawing, however, has a branch of leaves, and I do not observe any satisfactory dissections. He considers it as a new genus ; but the difference of the two phmts a])pears from this, that his full-blown flower is about three inches across, whereas mine is three feet.'"

Sir Stamford proceeds :

"Dr. Arnold did not live to return to Eencoolen, nor to fulfil the intentions expressed in the above extract ; but we have finished the drawing of the whole flower, and it is now forwarded under charge of Dr. Horsfleld, to whom I have also entrusted the pistil and buds.

"I shall make exertions for procuring another specimen, with which I hope we shall be more fortunate.

(Signed) " T. S. Raffles.

The drawing of the expanded flower, and the specimens mentioned in the preceding extract, were brought to Eng- land by Dr. Horsfield ; and, having been put into my hands, I ])roceeded without delay to examine the smaller flower-bud. In this examination the antheræ, although not at first obvious, were soon discovered, but no part was found which could be considered either as a perfect pistillum or as indicating the probable nature or even the exact place of the ovarium. The remains of the expanded flower 206 exhibited the same structure ; and the larger bud, which was examined by Mr. Bauer, whose beautiful drawings of it form the most valuable part of the present comunication, proved also to be male.

These materials, it must be admitted, are insufficient even for the satisfactory establishment of the proposed new genus, and in my opinion do not enable us absolutely to determine its place in the natural system.

The curiosity of botanists, however, has been so much