RHOPALOCNEMIS PHALLOIDES JUNGII, 



A 



. MORPHOLOGICAL-SYSTEMATICAL STUDY 



BY 



J. P. LOTSY, PH., D. 



»Hasce parasitas degenerationes plantarum 

 specificas, sine seminum aditu creatas modo 

 spontaneo genitas". 



(Tkattinick) Junghuhn. 



A couple of years ago my friend Mr. K. A. R. Bosscha sent 

 me a fine specimen of a plant which was entirely unknown to 

 me. As works of reference were rather scarce at the plateau 

 of Pengalengan ^) where I lived at that time it was impossible 

 to classify it; after the structure of the stamen of the plant 

 1 did not hesitate however to place it in the Balanophoraceous 

 family on account of what I knew of the anatomy of the sta- 

 men of Balanophora elongata. The plant sent to me bore large 

 male flowers and I consequently did not look but very super- 

 ficially for female ones, I concluded at once that my plant 

 was a male one, a conclusion which as we will see may have 

 been a false one. 



I sent the plant to my friend Dr. Valeton begging him to 

 give me the name and indicating my intention of working 

 up its life history, if it belonged really to the Balanophoraceous 

 family. 



1) The plateau of Pengalengan ia situated at an altitude of 5000 feet about 42 

 Kilometers to the South of Bandoeng, the capital of the Preanger Regencies, Java. 

 Ann. Jard. Buitenz. 2c S('r. Vol. II. 6 



