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XIV. On new Species of Balanophorá and Thonningia, with a note on Brugmansia Lowi, 
Becc. By WILLIAM Ғауусұ т, B.Sc., F.L.S., Assistant іп the Botanical Depart- 
ment, British Museum. 
(Plates XXXIII.-XXXVI.) 
Read 18th March, 1886. 
I. ON BALANOPHOR.E. 
BALANOPHORA HILDEBRANDTII, Reichb. fil.—During the 2nd voyage of Capt. Cook, Forster 
discovered in Tanna, one of the New Hebrides, a singular plant, which he called 
Balanophora fungosa. Dr. Anderson, the surgeon to the Expedition, made drawings | 
of several rare plants which were met with, and among them there is one of В. fungosa, 
dated 9 Aug., 1774. Тһе genus was established by Forster in his * Characteres Generum 
Plantarum,’ published in 1776. Anderson’s specimen and drawing are preserved in the 
British Museum. 
During the first voyage, however, Banks and Solander had discovered a species of 
Balanophora in Tahiti, in 1769, which was figured by S. Parkinson at the time. It was 
described by Solander in his MSS. as Acroblastum pallens, and placed by Seemann, in 
his ‘ Flora Vitiensis, under В. fungosa, Forst., where Solander's description is given іп 
full. I have examined both specimen and drawing of this plant in the Museum, and 
have identified it with a Balanophora discovered in Comoro Isles by Hildebrandt in 
1875, and described by Reichenbach, fil., in the ‘Journal of Botany,’ 1876, as B. 
Hildebrandtii. Hildebrandt's specimen only differs in being much larger, but we have 
lately received other specimens of about the same size as the Tahiti plant, collected also 
in the Comoro Isles, by Humblot. 
It seems strange that the same species should only have been found in such widely 
separated spots as Tahiti and the Comoro Isles, but when we consider that Cynomorium 
coccineum occurs in isolated spots from the Canary Islands to the Levant, we may hope that 
this Balanophora will be found in places intermediate between the habitats at present 
known. The geographical distribution need not be considered impossible; we may 
adduce the case of the Orchid, Cirrhopetalum Thouarsii, Lindl., which is found in 
Madagascar and Tahiti, and also in the intermediate stations, Mauritius, Java, and 
Manilla. 
The anthers have hexagonal ес, and this species is the only one which is similar in 
this respect to the Indian B. polyandra, Griff, from which it is readily distinguished 
by the capitula being bi-sexual. 
Reichenbach has given a very short description, and I therefore subjoin one, giving 
more details. 
B. Hildebrandtii, Reichb. f.; rhizomate tuberoso pustulato, squamis pedunculi 
imbricatis, capitulis bisexualibus, florum masculorum bracteis liberis nec in favum 
SECOND SERIES.— BOTANY, VOL. II. 20 
