BRITISH INDIA. 85 



Eastern Africa— p. 252-265. Birds of Tenasserim ; many new species— p. 266- 

 281. Hesperiphona affinis Blyth, n. sp., from the Punjaub — p. 179. Note on 

 Grus antigone and G. australasica—j). 360. Subdivision of the genus Malaco- 

 cercus Swainson — p. 478. Dipsas hexagonotus, Blyth, n. sp p. 360. Phos- 

 phorescent marine animals — p. 541. 



BRITAIN. 



The Transactions of the LiNNiEAN Society of London. 4to. London. 

 Vol. XXII. Part I. ; with nineteen Plates. 1856. 



(Hooker, J. D.) On the Structure and Affinities of Balanophoreae ; with sixteen 

 plates— p. 1-68. (Henfrey, A.) On the development of the ovule of Santalum 

 album ; with some Remarks on the phenomena of Impregnation of Plants gene- 

 rally; with two plates— p. 69-79. (Miers, J.) Remarks on the nature of the 

 outer fleshy covering of the Seed in the Clusiaceae, Magnoliacese, &c, and on the 

 development of the Raphe in general, under its various circumstances ; with figures 

 — p. 81-95. (Same) On several instances of the Anomalous development of the 

 Raphe in seeds, and the probable Causes of such deviations from the usual course of 

 structure, especially in reference to Stemonurus, Urandra of Thwaites, with some 

 prefatory remarks on that genus ; with figures — p. 97-112. 



The present volume commences with an elaborate paper by Dr. Hooker on the 

 structure and affinities of the Balanophore^e, a group of root-parasites of very 

 curious structure and strange aspect, combining in some degree the external 

 characters of Fungi with the floral apparatus of phanerogamous plants. Only one 

 of these plants is a native of Europe, and was known to the older writers by the 

 name of M Fungus melitensis" under which appellation it long enjoyed a reputation 

 as a styptic ; all the rest are natives of tropical or subtropical countries. The 

 majority inhabit the mountain forests of India and S. America, where they some- 

 times ascend to 10,000 feet. A few are scattered over the Eastern Archipelago, 

 and in the Pacific Islands, and two occur at the Cape of Good Hope. Some have 

 remarkably wide ranges for parasitic plants, the European species (Cynomorium 

 coccineuni) extending "from the Canary Islands to the mouths of the Nile, through 

 3,000 miles of longitude," and some others are as widely dispersed ; most, how- 

 ever, are, so far as known, very local. In Dr. Hooker's memoir twenty-eight 

 species are enumerated, and these are arranged under fourteen genera — a proof of* the 

 highly diversified structure which occurs in the Order — and which is further illus- 

 trated by a distribution into two sub-orders and seven tribes. Indeed, Dr. Hooker 

 seems to think that future discoveries may induce botanists to break up the Order 

 into several. The largest genus is Balanophora, of which eight species are enumer- 

 ated. Only two other genera, Lophophytum and Coryncea, have more than two 

 species, and eight genera are founded on solitary species ; yet we do not think the 

 generic subdivision has been carried to excess. The characters assigned seem 

 plain and well chosen, and diversities in the rhizome and inflorescence, which 

 indicate difference of habit, are employed as accessory to those derived from the 

 styles, stamens, and perianth. Botanists have long debated and differed on the 

 true position which the Balanophoreae ought to occupy in a lineal distribution of the 

 Natural Orders. By some these parasites have been supposed acotyledonous, and 

 associated with Eungi. Lindley devised his class Rhizogens, which he places below 

 Endogens, for this and two other Orders of root-parasites which agree in the nature 

 of their parasitism and in little else. Endlicher favours the same view, though he 

 does not consider his " Rhizanthece" as more than a minor class — a term which he 

 employs as the equivalent of Lindley's M Alliance." Other and perhaps most 

 botanists have regarded them as an anomalous form of Endogens, differing from 

 the ordinary types in having an imperfectly developed embryo, and scaly fungoid 

 habit. We believe that the late Mr. Griffith was the first to suggest a dicotyledonous 

 affinity for the order, which he placed in the neighbourhood of Urticeas, with the 

 exception of Mystropetalum, referred by him to Loranthese. Dr. Hooker, in the 

 present memoir, brings forward evidence of the exogenous structure of the rhizomes, 

 and consequently infers dicotyledonous embryo, although of a very imperfect type 



