OF BALANOPHOREZÆ. 33 
II. Cynomortium, Mich. 
(Tas. I. A.) 
1. CYNOMORIUM COCCINEUM, Mich.—Ad citationes evulgatas adde, Linn. Amœn. Acad. 
iv. 351. t. 9; Webb, Flor. Ins. Canar. iii. 431; Weddell in Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 3. 
xiv. p. 176. t. 11. 
Though this curious plant has received so much illustration from many able botanists, 
there are still some points in its structure which are little known; and there are points 
in Linnæus’s description in the * Amcenitates Academicæ,* which have, I believe, escaped 
most subsequent observers. 
The geographical range is very remarkable: it extends from the Canary Islands to the 
Levant; i.e. over fully fifty degrees, or 3000 miles of longitude. I have examined speci- 
mens from its extreme eastern and western limits ; namely, from Lancerotte and from 
the delta of the Nile; and I have compared these with others from various intermediaté 
localities, as Oran, Malta, Sardinia, S. Spain, and Sicily; and I have found no traces of any 
differences that suggest the propriety of establishing even varieties. It is also found in 
Etruria, lat. 41° N. (its northern limit), Lampedusa, and Tunis according to Linnæus. 
Cynomorium is not singular amongst Balanophoreæ in this wide distribution; though 
it is more local and scarce than any of its congeners which occupy an equally extensive 
area. It is the only species known to inhabit a dry climate and soil, and is no less 
remarkable for delighting in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea, and growing in 
salinas, and often on saline plants (Linn.). Mr. Webb informs us (Hist. Ins. Canar. Bot. 
vol. iii. p. 431) that it is eaten in the island of Lancerotte. | 
In a young state the lower part of the peduncle is remarkably distinct from the upper; 
it is broader, fusiform, and covered with short, broad, acuminate, imbricating, spirally 
arranged scales (well shown in Micheli’s plate), giving it a polygonal appearance: these 
scales are much less conspicuous in the old plant, and are probably very deciduous; 
whence the discrepancy that Richard remarks between his Egyptian specimens and 
Micheli’s figure. The lower portion of this contracts suddenly at the point of union with 
the root-stock, and there is, I believe, a well-developed rhizome; but I have no complete 
specimens of it. The parasitism consists in an intimate organic adhesion between a small 
surface of the cellular tissue of the Cynomorium, and the wood of the root on which it 
grows; but no vascular tissue (at any rate in the old state) unites the latter with the 
parasite. 
The vascular system (represented by Unger, Ann. Wien. Mus. ii. t. 5. f. 32) consists 
of many bundles irregularly scattered through the peduncle and capitulum; form- 
ing waving lines, but never crossing or resembling the endogenous type in structure or 
arrangement. These, in a transverse section, are seen to consist of two kinds of vessels ; 
namely, 1. internally of a small bundle of delicate cylindrical or angular white tubes with 
transverse marks or bands; 2. a broader dark external tissue which in a transverse 
section appears cellular, and in a longitudinal one is found to consist of many series of 
` linear, superimposed, oblong cells, regularly placed, and all terminating at the same plane, 
thus giving a barred appearance to the tissue ; the contents of these are all highly coloured. 
VOL. XXII. d 
