92 



what is said in the litterature of an „undeutlich dreifurchiges 

 Synandrium" etc. is due to a desire of connecting this stamen 

 with the three stamens found in other Balanophoraceous plants, 

 it is however pure phantasy as is seen from fig. 60 (top view 

 of an adult stamen) fig. 59 (side view of a similar one) , and 

 fig. 63, and 66 which represent cross-sections. I think that a 

 good deal of ^wanting to see" must be applied to these stamens 

 to discover in them a concrescence from three stamina. 



At a young stage no trace of pollenchambers can be seen 

 as yet. Soon they appear and are then found over the whole 

 distance of the primordium so that at first no steril part can 

 be distinguished from a fertil one (see the middle flower of 

 fig. 58 PI. XII). At this stage the whole organ is fertil, soon 

 divisions occur in the lower part which give rise to a very 

 short steril part (the sideflowers of fig. 58 PI. XII) which after- 

 wards carries the fertil part upwards, pushing it through the 

 floral envelop and rupturing the latter in a more or less irre- 

 gular way. 



While V. TiEGHEM states that always the pollenchambers of 

 the Balanophoraceae open each for itself (Quels qu'en soient 

 le nombre et la disposition, les sacs polliniques s'ouvrent chacun 

 par une fente propre) such is not the case with Ehopalocnemis. 

 Frequently the pollenchambers do not open at all and conse- 

 quently the pollen gets no chance to escape, if , on the contrary 

 the pollen does get its chance, it is due to an irregular destruction 

 of the tissue of the fertil part of the stamen , which starting 

 from the top, proceeds towards the base. 



A peculiarity of the pollenchambers of Rhopalocnemis which 

 is very unusual among Phanerogams is the fact that no dif- 

 ferentiation whatever occurs in the walls of these chambers , 

 no fibrous cells are formed; the adult pollenchambers are 

 simply cavities in an homogenous parenchyma, the cells of 

 which , at the most , are somewhat compressed by the growing 

 pollenchambers. This is plainly seen from fig. 63, 64 PI. XIIT 

 and fig. 80 PI. XII. Tapetal cells are formed which do not get 

 dissolved but remain visible even in the adult pollenchambers. 



