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89.04.00b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Lawrence Keogh, 1889-04 [89.04.00b]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/89-04-00b>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from Argus, 3 April 1889, p. 4 (B89.04.05). The text is introduced with the following information: ‘In the Argus of the 5th ult. [p. 7] appeared an account of the supposed discovery of a gigantic flower, 3ft. in diameter, in the south-east of the Philippine Islands by a party of German explorers. Mr. L. F. Keogh, of Heytesbury Park, Camperdown, having brought the paragraph under the notice of Baron von Mueller, has received the following communication from that gentleman in regard to the flower:—‘.
Let me thank you, dear Mr. Keogh, for your attentiveness in sending me the article from the Argus of the 5th March, regarding the gigantic flower found in the south-east of the Philippine Islands. As I mentioned when you spoke about this some days ago, there can be no doubt that the flower belongs to the genus Rafflesia, and it may be identical with the
Rafflesia Arnoldi

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. That was first found by Sir Stamford Raffles and Dr. Joseph Arnold in 1818 in Sumatra. The flower of that species measures up to 3ft. across, the lobes being to 1ft. long, and the weight of a flower to about 15lb., while the superficial cavity would hold 12 pints of water. The mode of growth of the Sumatra and Philippine plant is the same. A few other Rafflesias are known from the Sunda Island, but only one, the R. Patma, being nearly as large as R. Arnoldi; the others are much smaller. In the extensive list of indigenous plants of the Philippines, published in 1886 by S. Vidal y Soler,
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Vidal y Soler (1886).
no Rafflesia is enumerated, but R. Brown had recorded already the
Rafflesia Cumingi

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from Samar.
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R. Brown (1845), p. 243; the paper was read on 17 June 1834 and supplemented by Brown before being issued with Part 3 of the volume in November 1844. The description of R. cummingii is in the supplement.
The genus extends probably to New Guinea, and possibly in some small form to Northern Queensland. All the species are leafless and parasitic on the roots of various wild grape vines.