436 CXXI. BALANOPHORE (BOTTING HEMSLEY).  [Sarcophyte. 
receptacle, 1-celled (tricarpellary, Hichler); stigma large, sessile, discoid ; 
ovules 3, pendulous. ‘“ Fruit similar to the ovary though slightly larger ; 
epicarp fleshy; endocarp hard, the carpels of the separate flowers 
crowded, but not consolidated as in a truly compound fruit. Seed filling 
the cavity ; albumen large-celled ; embryo very small, central.”-—Herb 
parasitic on the roots of various J/imosew, &c., forming a large 
irregularly lobed tuber, bearing erect fleshy branched bracteate in- 
florescences, scaly at the base only. Volva annular,’ coriaceous, 2-3 
lin. long. Whole plant deep crimson, emitting a very unpleasant odour 
resembling putrid fish—/chthyosma, Schlecht. in Linnea, ii. 671, t. 85 
ili, 194. 
1. S. sanguinea, Sparrm. in Kongl. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. 
xxvii. (1776), 300, ¢. 7. Glabrous in all parts. Tuber irregularly 
lobed, verrucose, 2—5 in. in diam., or probably sometimes larger. Male 
inflorescence usually taller and looser than the female and sometimes 
exceeding a foot in height; in the tropical specimens seen consisting of 
a main axis about ? in. thick, scaly at the base and bearing numerous 
lateral racemes 14-2} in. long, arising in the axils of lanceolate bracts 
from 4 to ? in. long. Male flowers crowded, very shortly pedicellate, 
ebracteolate, about 3 lin. in diam. Perianth-lobes 2-4, usually 3, thick, 
fleshy, cucullate, 1-1} lin. in diam., enclosing the opposite stamens. 
Female inflorescence (described from extra-tropical specimens) capitate- 
paniculate, very dense, subglobose or oblong, 3-9 in. high, branched to 
the third or fourth degree. Heads crowded, globose, 4-6 lin. in diam., 
very shortly pedunculate, destitute of involucre. Female flowers very 
densely crowded, 3-3 lin. in diam., destitute of perianth, free from each 
other. Ovary immersed in the fleshy naked receptacle; style none; 
stigma discoid, of the same diameter as the flower.—Hook. f. in Trans. 
Linn. Soe. xxii. t. 1, fig. C; Eichler in DC. Prodr, xvii. 127. [chthyosmé 
Wehdemanni, Schlecht. in Linnea, ii. 671, t. 8. 
Wile Land. British East Africa: Kibwezi, damp, low forest at about 3300 
feet, on the roots of a thorn-tree; inflorescence deep red, Scheffler, 361! Scott- 
Elliot, 6293! 
Also in extratropical South Africa. 
It is a little doubtful whether the Uganda perfect male specimens are of the same 
Species as the extra-tropical plant, which appears to have a much more compoundly 
branched male inflorescence. But as Engler (Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 168) refers Zanzibar 
and Kilimanjaro specimens to S. sanguinea, he has been provisionally followed here. 
2. THONNINGIA, Vahl; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 236. 
Flowers unisexual, arranged in involucrate unisexual or bisexual 
heads, similar to those of many of the Cynaroidec, sessile. Heads solitary; 
pedunculate or sessile. Scales of the involucre rigid, in several or 
many series. Male flowers relatively few and large, in separate heads 
or in one or more circumferential series in the bisexual heads. Perianth 
of usually 3-5 lobes unequal in length and degree of attachment to the 
staminal column; sometimes regular or only slightly oblique; some 
