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Dioecious Flower:
RAFFLESIA, ra-fle'zhi-a, an East Indian genus of parasitic plants, reduced to apetalous dioecious flowers and named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the discoverer. R. Arnoldi was the first species discovered in Sumatra. It is a gigantic flower, springing from the roots or stems of Vitis (cissus), three feet in diameter and consisting of a globular central cup, containing either the ovary, or the numerous stamens, crowned by a ring, and the five-lobed calyx, fleshy and flesh-colored, blotched with pink and yellow inside and with brownish or bluish scales exteriorly. The whole flower sometimes weighs 15 pounds. It remains expanded for a few days only, and then decays, emitting a putrid odor that attracts carrion-loving flies, which probably assist in cross-fertilization. The fruit is a brown, rough surfaced nut, holding innumerable seeds. Certain Javanese species are valued there as powerful styptics.There need be no question in your mind about the market for good flower photography. One of the big slide film distributors has found flower fanciers the most consistent buy ers of all among slide collectors, even though the pictures offered are strictly of specimen flowers. These cannot possibly have the same appeal as pictures of flowers grown by the buyer in his own soil. The only flower fancier who is not an eager prospect for pictures of his blooms is one who has never seen a color slide transparency of a beautiful flower projected. A close-up of a lovely flower on a screen is a sight to make anyone, flower lover or not, gasp at its beauty.
Floiver festivals are frequent in the flower belt between Haarlem and Leiden. When the tulips are at their height in April, every Sunday is Tulip Sunday. A National Flower Show (mid-March to mid-May) is held on the Keukenhof Estate at Lisse. Later in the season (not the bulb-flower season), two magnificent festivals occur. The Hague stages a brilliant Flower Festival (early in August), with election of the Flows Queen (parade) and with special prizes such as that for the best bicycle Decoration (open to children); and an Aalsmeer-to-Amsterdam Flower Parade (September) culminates in the Olympic Stadium, for the award of prizes. The floats are always marvelous.
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