76 NATURAL HISTORY. 



thickest jungle, and always at the foot of some large tree. But he waa 

 unable to state whether the large tree was always of the same species. The 

 first thing to appear above the soil was a yellow spathaceous stalk, bearing 

 on its summit a ball, about the size of a marble, almost concealed among 

 the spathes. Most of these balls were of a velvety texture and a rich brown 

 colour. Two were rough, not unlike fir-cones. The balls continued to 

 grow in circumference as the stalks grew in height, till the latter were 

 about 3 inches long and the balls about the size of bagatelle balls. A 

 number of minute white flowers then opened over the whole surface of 

 the rough ball. Having no microscope or magnifying glass with me, 

 I was unable to identify the plant from the examination of its extremely 

 minute structural parts. Dr. Macdonald determined the open flowers on 

 the rough heads to be staminal only, and conjectured the velvety balls to 

 be composed of pistillate flowers only, and from the stamens being sinuous 

 and united into a central column, he was inclined to think the plant 

 might possibly belong to the Natural order Cucurbitacea?. But as he 

 also had no magnifier, he was unable to speak with certainty, and failed 

 to identify the plant. I much doubt if there is any Cucurbitaceous plant 

 without the climbing habit so characteristic of that order. On the other 

 hand, the small Natural orders Cytinacese and Balanophoracese, especially 

 the latter, present some features similar to those noticed in my Mahablesh- 

 war plant. The following characteristics at least of Balanophoraceae, 

 as described by Dr. Balfour in his Class Book of Botany, seem to be 

 identical with both those noticed by himself and those determined by 

 Dr. Macdonald : — "Leafless... with tubers... whence proceed naked or scaly 

 peduncles bearing heads of unisexual flowers. Staminal flowers generally 

 white. ..anthers. ..united into a multicellular mass... Parasitic on the roots 

 of various dicotyledons, and abounding on the mountains of tropical 

 countries." Dr. Balfour certainly says nothing of the very curious and 

 characteristic velvety ball, nor was the parasitic nature of my plant fully 

 established, but what I ascertained of its habits from the man who 

 brought it to me is at least not inconsistent with its being a root-parasite 

 He also informed me that the plants died down in the dry weather 

 and had never been known to survive removal. I kept mine alive 

 for some weeks in a soup-plate of water, but it was completely withered 

 before I left Mahableshwar in January. 



A. — Brown velvety ball. 



B. — Rough ball covered with minute whits flowers. 



C. — Spathaceous stalk, greenish-yellow towards the top and brighter-yellow in the 

 lower part. 



D. — Lump of red marly earth, apparently moist laterite clay, containing numerous 

 root fibres, in which the plant was growing. 



I incline to the belief that the plant was one of the Balanophoracese. But 

 the man who brought it to me was not aware of its possessing any useful 



