194 MR. TOKUTARO ITO ON A NEW 
Since L. C. Richard, in 1822, established the Order Balano- 
phore® in his remarkable * Mémoires sur une nouvelle Famille 
des Plantes, Balanophorées ” (Mém. du Mus. Hist. Nat. vol. viii.), 
these plants, by their singular morphological characters, parasitic 
habit, physiological significance, and the absence of green chlo- 
rophyll have attracted the attention of many botanists; and 
the elaborate monographs of Griffith *, Hooker f, and lastly of 
Eichler + have shown the complexity of the subject. Minute 
anatomical and physiological observations at the same time were 
by no means neglected by botanists, the chief exponents of which 
are Junghuhn$, Unger||, Góppert €T, Weddell **, Hofmeister tt, 
Solms-Laubach ff, and Beccari§§. Instead of entering here, 
however, into details on this subject, I refer simply to the above 
works, which are the principal contributions to our knowledge of 
Balanophores. 
Turning now to the consideration of the geographical distribu- 
tion of this Order in Eastern Asia, we find the species described 
by Sir J. D. Hooker from Hongkong under the name of Balano- 
phora Harlandi (Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxii. 1859, p. 426), 
authentic specimens of which I have been able to examine at Kew. 
No observation, however, was recorded previously, so far as I am 
aware, as to the occurrence of any plant of this Order in Japan. 
In July 1883, whilst engaged in collecting plants on Mount 
Amagi, in the province of Idsu, which forms a peninsula extend- 
ing in a south-easterly direction on the principal island of Japan, 
Mr. Ohkubo, of Tokio University, was fortunate enough to find, 
in the shelter of the forest, a parasitic plant of somewhat remark- 
able form. This plant consists of an aggregation of globular 
fleshy bodies, each with its apical part formed into a short scaly 
protuberance. These bodies, eight in number, are of light- 
yellowish brown; the scales which enclose the protuberances 
being, however, brown in colour. About an inch apart there 
* Trans. Linn. Soc., Bot. vol. xx. 1851. t Loc. cit. vol. xxii. 1859. : 
| Eichler, in De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus,’ vol. xvii. 1873; and in Martius's 
Flora Brasil. fasc. 47. 
$ Nova Act. Acad. Css. Leop.-Oarol. vol. xviii. 1839, Suppl, 
| Ann. des Wiener Mus. ii. 1840. 
*| Nova Act. Acad. Cæs. Leop.-Carol. vol. xviii. 1841, Suppl. 
** Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, vol. xiv. 1850. 
tt Abhandl. d. k. Sache. ges. d. Wiss. Bd. vi. 1859. 
11 Pringsheim’s * Jahrbücher,' Band vi. 1867-1868. 
$$ Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Italiano, vol. i. 1869. 
