Rafflesia Arnoldi

Rafflesia Arnoldi

I looked in vain for a correction concerning the pictures
accompanying the Oct. 3 environment feature. These pictures were
of an Amorphophallus in Kebun Raya Bogor. I saw it some years
ago. You can in fact see parts of the name on the labels in the
second photo, and the second half of the name is easy to remember
for anybody with a smattering of Greek, as it refers to the
central protrusion.

Rafflesia Arnoldi appears to be the subject of your article,
and it is also the emblem of Bengkulu. It is frequently portrayed
here in luridly painted concrete. Seeing it this way, the stench
is of course not apparent. It has more of the aspects of a yoni
than of a lingam. It was certainly interesting to read that it is
found in Borneo, since I had assumed it was unique to Bukit
Barisan. Since this Rafflesia is only one of several plants in
the family Rafflesiaceae, I would be interested to know whether
the Amorphophallus is another member of the same extraordinary
family.

Raffles himself was far more important as a botanist and
governor of Java during Napoleon's invasion of Holland, and later
as governor of what used to be known as Bencoolen, than as one of
the several founders of Singapore. He is well remembered here,
and I was surprised and gratified to find that my (Indonesian)
office manager has a collection of memoirs about Raffles and his
times which were written in both Dutch and English. Raffles'
botanical efforts related in the first instance to the search for
commercially exploitable species, but his concern for the ecology
and diverse peoples of the archipelago is an example to latter
day imperialists.

EDWARD S. WEBBER

Bengkulu