Title: Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences
Identifier: edinburghjournal01macg (find matches)
Year: 1835 (1830s)
Authors: Macgillivray, William, 1796-1852, ed; Cuvier, Georges, baron, 1769-1832. Animal kingdom of the Baron Cuvier adapted to the present state of zoological science
Subjects:
Publisher: Edinburgh
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
The Krubut is a parasite, growing in the woods, on the roots and stems of those immense chmbing plants, generally of the genus vitis (or vine), which are attached, like enormous cables, to the largest trees of the forest. The flower constitutes the whole of this plant, there being no leaves, and neither roots nor stems. Thus, the plant forms a complete anomaly in the history of vegetables. It grows out of an- other plant in the manner of the mistletoe, and not on the decayed surface of plants, as is the case with the common fern on the trunks of old oak pollards. In the latter case, the proper term is not parasite^ but epiphyte* The flowers of this extraordinary plant are of one sex; and the male only has yet been sent to England. The breadth of a full flower exceeds three feet from the mar- gin of the one petal d to that of the other d; the petals, or leaves of the flower, are roundish, and measure twelve inches from the base to the apex. It is about a foot from the insertion of one petal to the opposite one; and that part which is considered the nectarium, or central cup of the flower, would hold twelve pints of liquid. The pistils, which are abortive, and as large as cows' horns, are represented in fig 2. h 6. The weight of the whole flower is calculated at about fifteen pounds. It is of a very thick substance, the petals and nectary being in few places less than a quarter of an inch thick, and in some parts three-quarters of an inch; it is succulent in texture, but of a firm fleshy consistence. The flower, fully blown, was discovered in a jungle of Sumatra, growing close to the ground, under the bushes, with a swarm of flies hovering over the nectary, and appai-ently layin"; their eggs in its substance. The colour of the five petals, or flower leaves, of which it is composed, is a brick-red, covered with protuberances of a yellowish white. The inside of the cup is of an in- tense purple, and more or less densely yellow, with soft flexible spines of the same colour. Towards the mouth, it is marked with numerous depressed spots of the purest white, contrasting strongly mth the purple of the surrounding substance, which is considerably elevated on the lower side. The smell is that of tainted beef. * From (s-^/) cpi, upon, and ((puTO-/) phi/ton, a plant.
Text Appearing After Image:
This knob, when cut through, exhibits the infant flower enveloped in numerous bracteal sheaths. These successively open and wither away as the flower enlarges, until at the time of full expansion, when there are but a very few reiuaining, present- ing somewhat the appearance of a broken calyx, as represented in fig. 2, a a. The fe- male flower differs but little in appearance fi'om the male, further than in being with- out the anthers, fig. 2, c. Fig. 3 represents one of the anthers a httle larger than the natural size, and shewing a section of the cavity in which it is immersed. It takes three months from the first appearance of the bud to the full expansion of the flower. The blossoms decay not long after their expansion, and the seeds (sporce) are raised with the pulpy mass. The fruit has not yet been seen by botanists, but is said by the natives to be a many-seeded berry. IMr Brown has made some interesting observations on the Raffiesia Arnoldi^ where- in he remarks, that it is not common for parasitic plants to fix indiscriminately on the roots or branches of their stocks, as is supposed to be the case with the genus Rafflc- sia; and observes, that "plants parasitic on roots are chiefly distinguishable by the imperfect development of their leaves, and the entire absence of green colour; that their seeds are small, and their embryo not only minute, but apparently imperfectly developed." Mr Loudon says, that "the modes of union between a parasite and its supporter, or stock, vary in different genera and species of this class of vegetables. Some, as the mistletoe and Rafflesia, depend on the stock for nourishment during the whole of their existence; others, as the common broom-rape, are originated in the soil; and afterwards, when they have attached themselves to their stock, the original roots die. Other parasites, again, eu'C originated on the stock, and in their more adt- vanced state produce roots of their o^vn. In. some cases the nature of the connexion between the parasite and the stock is such, as can only be explained on the supposi- tion that the germinating seed of the parasite excites a specific action in the stock, the result of which is the formation of a structure, either wholly or in part derived from the root, and adapted to the support and protection of the undeveloped parasite; analogous, therefore, to the production of galls by the puncture of insects. On this supposition may be explained the connexion between the flowers of the genus Raffle- sia, and the root from whence it springs." In Sumatra, all the vegetable productions seem to be on a gigantic scale. Sir Stamford Raffles, after describing this great flower, says, " There is nothing more striking in the Malayan forests than the grandeur of the vegetation. The magnitude of the flowers, creepers, and trees, contrasts strikingly with the stunted, and I had almost said, pigmy vegetation of England. Compared with om* fruit trees, your largest oak is a mere dwarf. Here we have creepers and vines, entwining larger trees, and hanging suspended for more than lOO feet, in girth not less than a man's body, and many much thicker; the trees seldom under 100, and generally approaching 160 to 200 feet in height." The Knowle-Park Beech.—This most magnificent tree in Knowle-Park, Kent, is the largest undecayed and entire beech in the kingdom. It was measured in Oc- tober 1835, and the following ai-e its dimensions:—Circumference of the stem, at six inches from the gromid, thirty-nine feet, five inches; at one foot, sis inches; thirty feet, nine inches; four feet above, twenty-eight feet, one inch; seven feet above, twenty-five feet; one spiral limb, fourteen feet from the ground, fifteen feet. The mean height of the tree, eighty-nine feet; and the circumference of ground covered by branches, three-hundred and forty-seven feet. The Tallipot Tree is a native of the island of Ceylon, in the East Indies. This tree is remarkable on account of its leaves, which are of such a size as to cover ten men, and keep them from the rain; they are very light, and travellers carry them from place to place, and use them for huts. MINERALOGY. Discovert of Marble.—In the island of Tiree, on the west coast of Scotland, an engineer has lately discovered some beautiful blocks of white marble, and inex- haustible strata of variegated granite, in undulating streaks, of red, white, and black. At the Ross, in the island of Mull, comparatively pure red and white granite occurs in vast abundance. This is by far the most beautiful variety in this country, or perhaps in the world. One of the many blocks forming the debris of an adjoining mountain was found to measure 12 cubic feet to the ton—no less than 104 square tons of workable granite 1 Depth of Mines Kit's-puhl copper mine in the Tyrol mountains, 2764 feet; Samson's mine at Andrcasburgh,in the Hartz, 2220 feet; Valencianamine, Guanaxu- ato, Mexico, 2170 feet; Pearce'sshaft, consolidated mines, Cornwall, 1650 feet; Monk- wearmouth colliery, Durham, 1600 feet; Wheal Abraham's mine, 1452 feet; Dol- wath mine, Cornwall, 1410; and Erton mine, Staffordshire, 1380 feet.

Note About Images