AFFINITIES OF BALANOPHOREÆ. 15 
scales; in Rhopalocnemis it is tubular; in Spherorhizon and Corynea it is tubular 
below and campanulate above; in Helosis, Scybalium, and Sarcophyte it is tubular below, 
with three valvate segments; in Balanophora solid below, with three to eight valvate 
segments; in Mystropetalon it is irregular and oblique, of one free and two combined 
pieces, all valvate, and forming a tube below. The æstivation of the perianth is inva- 
riably valvate. 
In the female flowers of all the genera but Cynomorium, the perianth differs very 
widely indeed from that of the male; as much soas in any Natural Order of plants. It is 
generally far less highly developed than the male, though more so in Lophophytee and 
Thonningia. It is assumed to be more or less adherent with the ovary in all the genera, but 
is perhaps totally suppressed in Balanophora, which presents the simplest possible form of 
female flower. In Sarcophyte the ovaries are immersed in a fleshy perianth, and all cohere 
into a solid capitulum. All the Distyli have two confluent ovaria, forming a one- or rarely 
two-celled pistil, and crowned by a two-lipped perianth ; except in the case of Lophophytee, 
in which the limb is truncate or suppressed. In Cynomorium the six pieces of the 
perianth adhere to the ovary at irregular heights, being rarely wholly superior or wholly 
inferior. Thonningia and Langsdorffia have slender tubular perianths, which are solid 
below, and bear at their very base a small ovule, which is sunk in the fleshy capitulum : 
in the latter of these genera the female perianth much resembles the male, and its mouth 
is sometimes swollen and obscurely three-lobed. The female flower of Mystropetalon 
departs widely from the general type of the Order: the spherical ovary is seated on an 
oblate disc, and crowned by a small, campanulate, three-lobed, deciduous perianth, which 
may either be considered as the articulate free limb of the adherent calyx, or as a corolla. 
Analogy with Haloragee, Rubiacee, Composite, &c., suggests the latter explanation, 
which however is opposed to the fact of there being no double perianth in the male 
flowers of this genus, or in any other plant of the Order. 
Stamina.—The diversity of form so conspicuous in the perianth of different genera of 
Balanophoree is shared by the male organs, which agree in no point save the production 
of pollen. In Lophophyteæ the stamen is of the normal form, but only two in each 
flower, and without any other perianth than two mamillæ: the stamens have a very short 
filament and a long linear anther. In Cynomorium the stamen is solitary and of the usual 
form, but surrounded by a perianth, and subtended by a rudimentary style: in herm- 
aphrodite flowers it is epigynous, and the filament is stout, attached to the anther by a 
very small point, and thé anther is introrse. Mystropetalon presents the next modification, 
having three free stamens, each opposite a division of the perianth, and being similar 
to that of Cynomorium, but with an extrorse anther. Sarcophyte has three free stamens, 
opposite the valves of the perianth; they have fleshy filaments and adnate subspherical 
capitate anthers, full of polliniferous cavities. In all the remaining genera, viz. those of 
Helosideæ, Thonningia, Langsdorffia, and Balanophora, the stamens are opposite the lobes 
of the perianth; they are usually three in number, but vary in this respect; and are more 
or less confluent, both by their filaments and anthers. The dehiscence varies extremely, as 
does the number of cells. In all the species of Balanophora, Langsdorffia, and Thonningia, 
the anthers burst extrorsely, and have two or more loculi, which are confluent or anfrac- 
