James Wilkins, age 9, of Florence, S.C.,or his question:

WHICH IS THE LARGEST FLOWER?

    The largest flower in the world does not look at all like a pretty flower.    You might think that somebody left a big round dish of rotting meat on the ground. Its name is rafflesia, and it grows on the roots of certain tropical trees. It has no roots of its own and no leaves. It just has a short stem and a huge round flower which produces seeds. In the East Indies and the Philippines, some of the rafflesia flowers are 3 feet wide.