AFFINITIES OF BALANOPHOREÆ. 23 
proximity to Aristolochiæ, an Order with which Balanophoreæ have not the slightest affi- 
nity. The arguments employed by Blume, Endlicher, Lindley, &c., for combining these 
Orders into one group, are also employed for removing both from Phænogams; the 
strongest reason for allying them being, not that they present characters in common, 
but that neither of them is considered to be allied to any other known Order of Phæ- 
nogams. 
Of the authors who consider Balanophoree to be Phænogamie, the majority refer them 
to Monocotyledones; Richard, and others following him, placing them in the neigh- 
bourhood of Aroideæ. 
Griffith places them in Dicotyledones, and suggests their being the homogeneous em- 
bryonate group of Urticee; to which the structure of the Distyli is quite opposed: nor 
indeed does he endeavour to support this hypothesis by any arguments, but merely 
throws it out as a suggestion. 
In my opinion, the arrangement of the vascular bundles in the rhizomes of Helosis and 
Langsdorffia is sufficient evidence of these plants being exogenous; for these, as I have 
elsewhere shown, are altogether exogenous, differ little from the stems of Menispermeæ 
and other anomalous, but still undoubted, Dicotyledons, and resemble no known Endogen 
in structure or arrangement. 
In endeavouring to determine the affinities of Balanophoreæ, I shall disregard the nega- 
tive characters, as those may be termed which are founded on the imperfection of organs; 
and I shall take the most perfectly developed species, as the best expositors of the typical 
structure of the Order. In so doing, I believe I am obeying a maxim supported by an 
attentive study of the natural system ; for there are few Natural Orders, however perfect, 
that do not present structurally incomplete genera or species, many of which in point of 
development of their organs might rank below many Balanophoreæ and some Cryptogams ; 
but which, nevertheless, are not departures from the type of their Order, but simply less 
developed forms of it. : 
Balanophoreæ have an adherent perianth in all the genera where this organ is deve- 
loped, and an epigynous stamen in Cynomoriwm, the only species in which hermaphrodite 
flowers occur. These characters indicate a position amongst the epigynous Calyciflore ; 
a group which, though far from being well limited as a natural class, is in our present 
state of knowledge one of considerable value, as comprehending many nearly allied natural 
families. Amongst them, the most direct relation of Balanophoreæ is certainly with 
Halorageæ, and especially Gunnera; with which it presents many important characters 
in common, especially the valvate perianth and stamens opposite its lobes, and near which 
I would place it in the linear series. 
A detailed comparison of the individual organs of a family so eminently polymorphous, 
with those of its allies, can alone establish its affinities: the more conspicuous of them 
are :— 
1. Between Cynomorium and Hippuris, in the one epigynous stamen, on an ovarium 
consisting of one carpel with a solitary pendulous ovule and simple style. 
2. Between the Distyli and Halorageæ a relation is established through the Australian 
genus Loudonia, which is a very peculiar form of the latter Order, having four styles, and 
