This naming process involved intrigue, politics, and greed.
BACA JUGA:Fort Marlborough, a British Legacy in Bengkulu, Indonesia
Contrary to popular belief, the first foreigner to see the Rafflesia was not Stamford Raffles or Dr. Joseph Arnold, but Louis Auguste Deschamps.
Louis Auguste Deschamps was a French physician and natural explorer. He sailed and explored Java in the late 18th century.
Deschamps was briefly arrested by the Dutch. However, the Dutch Governor-General at the time, Van Overstraten, spared him detention and instead commissioned him to conduct a three-year expedition to Java, from 1791 to 1794.
On this order, Louis Auguste Deschamps actively explored and collected numerous plant species in the interior of Java and later wrote the initial draft of "Materials towards a flora of Java."
Deschamps first saw, collected specimens, and described the Rafflesia found on Nusakambangan Island in 1797, 20 years before Dr. Joseph Arnold's discovery.
A year later, in 1798, Deschamps returned to France with his entire collection, complete with notes from his exploration of Java.
As he approached the English Channel, his ship was captured and his entire collection confiscated by the British.
After viewing Deschamps's stolen specimen collection, British botanists realized that Deschamps had discovered a unique and previously unseen species.
Then a secret competition arose among botanists over who would publish a description of this astonishing plant.
These British botanists argued that, regardless of who it was, this exotic flower should be described or named by the British, not the Dutch, let alone the French.
So, Raffles, then the British Governor-General of Bengkulu, ordered William Jack to immediately describe the species found in South Bengkulu.
William Jack was a physician and natural explorer who replaced Dr. Joseph Arnold. William Jack's article, describing the plant as R. titan, was sent to London in April 1820. Unfortunately, William Jack's article was mysteriously not published immediately.
Until Robert Brown presented his sensational discovery to members of the Linnean Society on June 30, 1820.
William Jack's article was finally published in August 1820. Robert Brown named the flower Rafflesia arnoldii R.Br.