ACCOUNT OF A NEW GENUS OF PLANTS, t^i
��RAFFLE SI A
��Ptead to the Liimean Society, Jiiuc 30tli, 1820.
��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 estabhshments in Sumatra.
This gigantic flower, which forms the subject of the pre- sent communication, was discovered in 1818 on Sir Stam- ford's first journey from Bencoolen into the interior. In that journey he was accom[)anied by a naturalist of great zeal and acquirements, the late Dr. Joseph Arnold, a mem- ber of this Society, from whose researches, aided by the friendship and influence of the Governor, in an island so favorably situated and so imperfectly explored as Sumatra, the greatest expectations had been formed. But these ex- pectations were never to be realised; for the same letter which gave the account of the gigantic flower, brought also the intelHgence of Dr. Arnold's death.
As in this letter many important particulars are stated respecting the plant which I am about to describe, and a just tribute is paid to the merits of the naturalist l)y whom it was discovered, I shall introduce my account by the following extract.
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