44 DR. J. D. HOOKER ON THE GENERA AND SPECIES 
of one or two rigid, stout, cylindrical, yellow tubes of sclerogen, with blunt apices; their | 
walls are transparent, but extremely thick, and they are sometimes solid in places; they , 
entirely resemble the woody tissue commonly developed in other parts of Langsdorffia | 
and Helosis. The style is very long, filiform, and continuously papillose along the 
exserted portion. I have not seen the seeds, which occupy a very minute cavity in the 
base of the columnar ovary, and are said to be sunk in the receptacle. The latter expands 
considerably after flowering, when the scales fall away from the flowering branch, and the 
latter turns black, and probably decays. | 
I know nothing of the parasitism of Thonmingia; the rhizome is brown, slender, — 
smooth, and sparingly branched, and rises into an obscure cup round the base of the 
peduncle, which is clothed with bright red scales. I find no hairs upon the rhizome, as - 
is the case with Langsdorffia, but there are small woolly tufts at the bases of the leaves, 4 
on the stem. The hairs are simple, long, inarticulate, flexuose, broad at the very base, | 
rough on the surface, and with a very large continuous cavity. 
VI. BALANOPHORA, Forst. 
1. BALANOPHORA INVOLUCRATA (supra, p. 30). 
- Var. a. rubra, pedunculis et capitulis rubris, capitulis ovoideis bisexualibus (Tas. IV., V. & VL). 
Var. B. flava, pedunculis et capitulis stramineis v. flavis, capitulis unisexualibus rariüs bisexualibus. 
Var. y. gracilis, pedunculis elongatis gracilibus capitulisque flavis, capitulis unisexualibus parvis 
- (Tas. VII. A.). 
Var. 8. Cathcartii, pedunculis robustis capitulisque albis roseisve, capitulis unisexualibus (Tas. VII. B.). 
Hab. In Himalayz temperatæ sylvis humidis ; Sikkim, alt. 7-9000 ped. (J. D. H.) Simla, alt. 6000 ped. 
- (Thomson) (fl. Jul.). ; ; 
Rhizoma 2-6 unc. latum, pustulis parvis cellulosis asperum, variè lobatum, nodos 3-4 poll. diam. radicibus 
Aceris et Quercds efficiens. Pedunculi graciles v. crassi, breves v. elongati, medio involucrati, interdüm — 
compressi v. fasciati. Capitulum ovoideum v. globosum, rariùs depresso-globosum; ¢ profunde 
alveolatum. Flores å 2-5-meri, plerumque 3-meri. Anthere tot quot lobi perianthii synemate brevi 
sessiles, transversè oblongæ, supernè rimå transverså dehiscentes, FZ. 9 capitulo sessiles v. circa 
basin bracteolæ clavatæ aggregati. 
The extreme varieties which I have here included under one species are so very dis- 
"similar, that no one who had not seen large suites of specimens, presenting every inter- 
mediate form between them, could venture to unite them under one: as it is, I found that - 
neither colour, form, nor the sexuality ofthe capitula are constant characters. In the same 
woods wherein I gathered the var. gracilis growing upon roots of oak, I also gathered var. 
flava growing on those of an Araliaceous shrub, and differing from the var. gracilis only 
In its more robust habit. In general there is a greater tendency in the female capitula | 
to bear male flowers than in the males to produce female; for though I often met with 
female capitula bearing male flowers at their base 
» and sometimes at their summit, and 
occupying a considerable portion of the surface, I never found male capitula to bear any - 
but very rudimentary female flowers scattered along the edges of the alveoli in which the - 
lower part of the male perianth is sunk. 
. The present is the most alpine species of the genus known to me, and is common in 
Sikkim at 8000 to 10,000 feet elevation. I have found it on the exposed aërial rootlets of | 
