AFFINITIES OF BALANOPHOREÆ. - E 
tissues of Balanophoreæ are more uniform throughout the whole plant than in any other 
vegetables in which so abundant and high a development of cytoblasts occurs, is inclined 
to refer all Rhizanths to one class, which he would place amongst Acrogens, and near 
Filices. I need scarcely say that these feeble analogies do not appear to me to be of the 
smallest systematic value; so long as they are unsupported by definite characters, and 
that any such affinity is negatived by every other point in their structure and deve- 
lopment. 
The cuticle of Balanophoreæ never presents stomata, but is very simple in its structure, 
and formed of small cells, sometimes however of large vesicular ones, either isolated or 
in groups; as in B. involucrata (Plate IV. figs. 7 & 16): in other specimens clusters of 
bladdery cells form warts on the rhizome (fig. 16), which are arranged in lobed masses in 
B. elongata and others. 
Hairs rarely occur on plants of this Order, though they are abundant on Langsdorffia 
tomentosa, and found on the flowering stem of Thonmingia: in both genera they are un- 
branched, cylindrical, rather blunt tubes, with swollen and often bulbous bases, and more 
or less rough surfaces, and have thin walls and a large continuous empty cavity. 
Sclerogen-cells, or clostera, abound in most of the species, and always present very 
thick, woody, perforated walls: they are especially conspicuous in the rhizome of Langs- 
dorffia, in the cortical layer of that of Lophophytum, and in the leaf-scales of the mel 
plant, in which they pass into the form of tubular vessels. 
Foliar organs.—No species is wholly deprived of these, though in some they are almost 
absent, and in others represented by scales on various parts of the plant; rarely on the 
rhizome, and most frequently on the capitulum, where they form more or less perfect 
bracts. There is, however, no obvious law for their development. In Cynomorium and 
Lophophytum they occur on all parts, from the rhizome to the apex of the capitulum. In 
Langsdorfia, Thonningia, Balanophora, Scybalium, and Mystropetalon, they are more 
or less highly developed on the peduncle, and very much reduced on the capitulum: in 
Phyllocoryne, they clothe both the peduncle and capitulum : in Sphærorhizon, they oceur 
only at the base of the peduncle, on it, and on the capitulum : in Helosis guyanensis they 
cover the capitulum, but on the peduncle and at its base are reduced to a few small scales ; 
whilst in H. mexicana, Rhopalocnemis, and Corynæa, they are almost er to the 
former organ. 
It hence appears that their chief development is upwards ; the most rudimentary forms 
occurring on the rhizome at the base of the peduncle, where they compose the bud-scales ; 
the most perfect on the capitulum, where they appear as bracts. 
The bud-scales are numerous and imbricating in Spherorhizon, and probably also in 
Scybalium; valvate in Langsdorffia and Helosis guyanensis; reduced to a volva or ring 
in Balanophora and Rhopalocnemis; and absolutely wanting in Corynea. In most of 
. the species the foliar organs are alternate; but in several Balanophore, in Langsdorffia, 
and Helosis guyanensis, those of the peduncle are whorled, and together form a cup; 
while they are reduced to an obsolete ring in Helosis mexicana. 
Inflorescence.—The flowers are arranged in a uni- or bi-sexual spherical, oblong, cylin- 
drical, or ovoid capitulum, in all the genera except in those of Lophophyteæ and in Sar- 
