402 ON THE FEMALE FLOWER AND FRUIT OF
An exainiiiation of complete specimens of Hj/clnora (ifricana has coiilirmecl this view ; and as there are points in its structure which seem to thiow some Hght on one of the most diliicult questions respecting Bafflesia, I have in- cluded an account of this genus in the ])resent paper.
The accompanying drawings of Hi/fhiora africana, which so admiral)ly display its structure, wei'e kindly made from these specimens by my lamented friend and fellow-traveller Mr. Ferdinand Bauer, when he revisited England in 1824 ; they were probably the last drawings he ever made of an 222] equally interesting and difficult botanical subject, and I consider them his best.^
Since the publication of my former memoir, nuich light has been thrown on the structure and economy of liajlcsia, chiefly by Dr. Blume, who in his * Flora Javse' has given a very full history of a neai-ly related species, his jRafflesjn Patma, as well as of Brug)nansia, a parasite of similar economy, very distinct as a genus, but evidently belonging to the same natural fomily. Before, however, noticing more particularly what has l)een done by others, I shall resume the subject whei'e I left it at the conclusion of my former niemoir, in adverting to those points which I then regarded as the principal desiderata in the botanical history of this extraordinary plant.
The first of these related to the reticulate base, which 1 ventured to consider a production of an intermediate kind, or rather as one derived from the stock or root of the Vine,
1 Since tliis paper was read, the Linneaii Society liave bad to lament tlie loss of Francis Bauer, who died in 1S41 at the advanced age of eighty-three. Like his brother Ferdinand, he continued, till within a short time of bis death, to take the same interest in those scientiiic investigations which formed the constant occupation and the chief pleasure of a long life.
'J'lic figures of RnJJk^ia and liydnora, which so admirably illustrate, and form the more valual-le part of this communication, are atnonii: the best speci- mens of the unrivalled talent of the two brothers Francis and Ferdinand Bauer, who, as botanical painters, equally united the minute accuracy of the naturalist with the skill of the artist.
To this biief note I may be permitted to add how fortunate I consider myself in having so long enjoyed the friendship and so ofien been indebted for the important assistance of these two distinguished men, whose merits in the branch of art which they cultivated have never been equalled, and to both of whom the illustrations of the present paper, so happily connected, may form an appropriate monument, the work of their own hands.
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