96 Mr. Griffith on the Indian Species of Balanophora, 



also the Balanophorece of Java have received some attention, but I am ignorant 

 of the results*. 



Obs. II. — My materials for illustrating these plants are extensive, consist- 

 ing of drawings of one species made from the recent plants, and of a plentiful 

 series of specimens preserved in spirits. 



All the species agree in having an amorphous tuberiform mass, which may 

 be considered as the common axis. This mass is firmly united to the woody 

 system of the roots of the stock, which are ramified in its substance, the bark 

 ceasing along the places of union. The cellular tissue of the mass adheres 

 firmly to the divisions of the roots, which appear to terminate in an abrupt 

 manner. Some of the specimens look like zoophytes adhering to foreign 

 bodies. This common mass or axis is much lobed ; the surface is always 

 more or less, and often to a high degree verrucose, the verrucse being va- 

 riously lobed, and having an appearance that suggests the idea of their being 

 of an excretory nature. Internally the common mass is mainly composed of 

 cellular tissue, the cells in many instances containing nuclei, and often viscid 

 matter. The vascular bundles are many, without any very evident arrange- 

 ment, except towards the axes or stems, to which they will be found to con- 

 verge. They are composed of lax fibres, filled (after maceration at least) with 

 grumous tissue, and short, annular, sometimes partly unroUable vessels. 



Within the common mass the buds are developed, being protected during 

 their earlier stages by the superficies of the mass, as well as by their own 

 scales, which are then very closely imbricated. The buds subsequently pro- 

 trude through the common covering, derived from the superficies of the mass, 

 which remains in the shape of an irregularly torn annulus or wrapper. 



The flower-bearing axes or stems, which appear perhaps generally to be one 

 to each lobe of the common mass, are not isochronous in development. In- 

 stead of leaves they present imbricated uncoloured scales. The main bulk of 

 the stem is of nucleary cellular tissue, traversed by longitudinal vasculo- 

 fibrous fascicles, which supply the scales. In the female spikes these are 



* Since I 'wrote the memoir on Balanophora, I have seen Junghuhn and Goeppert's papers in the 

 • Nova Acta Academiae Naturse Curiosorum,' but I cannot get them translated. At any rate, my con- 

 clusions were derived independently of the papers alluded to. — Mr. Griffith in a Letter to Mr. R. H. Solly, 

 dispatched from Calcutta April \Qth, 1843. 



