AFFINITIES OF BALANOPHOREÆ. 19 
made by authors, probably in all cases arises from their having only examined immature 
specimens. 
The individual cells of the homogeneous embryo are angular, with very thick transparent 
walls, and small cavities filled with a few chlorophyll-granules. I have never found starch 
in the embryo of any species; the contents of their cells being browned by iodine. Oil 
abounds in the exalbuminous species, and in the embryos of Cynomorium and Mystropetalon. 
Hitherto the true nature of the exalbuminous, so-called exembryonate seed of Balano- 
phoræ has eluded all research; mor till its germination has been traced*, is it probable 
that this point will be satisfactorily cleared up. In the mean time it may involve less of 
hypothesis to assume that the embryo is a homogeneous mass, in so far as any evident 
distinction of cotyledons and radicle is concerned, than to regard it as an albumen in which 
the embryo has not yet been discovered. Much may be said on both sides of this ques- 
tion; for instance, analogy with Oyaomorium, in which the embryo is oily and the albu- 
men not so, is in favour of the seed of Balanophora being considered to be embryo; on 
the other hand, if the cellular ovule of Balanophora so perfectly resembles the embryo of 
Cynomorium, it appears reasonable to conclude that the albumen of Cynomorium is endo- 
spermic, and developed in the same delicate sac with the embryo itself; against which view 
there appears no theoretical objection t. 
* Impressed with the great importance of this point, I endeavoured, when in India, but uniformly in vain, to induce 
the seeds of Balanophora and Rhopalocnemis to germinate. 
t Amongst the many Natural Orders whose homogeneous seeds or embryos present more or less analogy with those 
of Balanophoreæ, none have so close a similarity as those of Triurideæ. I have examined a species of this Order in 
a living state in the Khasia Mountains (East Bengal) : its ovule (which has not hitherto been described) is manifestly 
anatropous, and consists of one integument and nucleus; offering one out of many proofs that the structure and posi- 
tion of the ovule in no degree influence the after-development of the embryo: in other words, that the development 
of the embryo, so far as its form and structure are concerned, is in a great measure irrespective of the presence or 
absence of envelopes to the embryonary sac. 
Mr. Miers, in his valuable and elaborate paper on Triurideæ (Linn. Soc. Trans. xxi. p. 51) considers that it is con- 
sistent with the simplicity of the stracture of other parts of the plants belonging to that family, “to expect a nucleus 
equally simple in its nature, formed merely of an aggregation of cytoblasts, which, under farourably-exeiting eircum- 
stances, are endowed with the faculty of self-development.” The true nucleus of the ovule in Triurideæ is however in 
no way different in structure or position from that of ordinary Phænogamic plants, from which it follows that although 
the embryo appears amorphous, its radicular extremity must be a determinate point with relation to the seed, and that in 
germination that end will elongate, and perform the function of the roots. The term * Protoblastus,” therefore, as indi- 
cating an embryo that germinates from no determinate point, cannot under this view be adopted for that of Triurideæ, 
though, if it were proved that the germination of Balanophore (the structure of whose ovules does not reveal the posi- 
tion of the radicle) were from an indeterminate point, it might be more applicable to them. In both Cynomorium and 
Mystropetalon however, the radicular end of the embryo is very evident, and as there can be no doubt that the embryos of 
most or all Balanophoree germinate whilst still within the pericarp, it may be inferred that the radicle will protrude 
from a given ruptured point of the latter, and not indifferently through any part of its walls. Under these circum- 
stances, I hesitate to adopt a term, which, in the present state of the inquiry, and as far as regards this order, implies, 
not that the germinating point is indeterminate, but that this, and the whole process of germination, are absolutely 
unknown. 
With regard to other embryos which would come under the definition of a Protoblastus, that of Orchidee evidently 
germinates from a given point; and Caspari’s beautiful observations on Orobanche show that the same is the case 
in that genus. Blume describes the embryo of Amorphophallus as throwing out plumulary leaves from several 
points at once, which probably indicates a development of. several much-reduced internodes crowded together, 
D2 
