OF BALANOPHORE2. 49 
these plants grow, sudden accessions of rain may often alter the relative level of a plant 
and the soil in which it grows. | 
M. Weddell remarks the absence of styles in this species as constant; but all his speci- 
mens being advanced, and these organs being extremely caducous, I am not disposed to 
lay much stress upon the fact of none of the specimens presenting them. The form of 
the fruit differs from that of L. mirabile, being much less contracted at the base. This 
however is a variable character, and I am inclined to agree with M. Weddell in suspect- 
ing the possibility of its being only a variety of the Brazilian species. 
The arrangement of the stamina upon the lobes or mamillæ of the peduncle appears to 
be definite, though at first sight they appear irregularly clustered. M. Weddell's figure 
and specimens show that the whole surface of each mamilla is covered with lobed conical 
masses, which are connate male flowers, each consisting of two mamillæ placed right and 
left to the axis, and two stamens, one opposite each mamilla. 
3. LOPHOPHYTUM WEDDELLII, nob. (supra, p.30). (Tas. IX.) 
Hab. In sylvis humidis montium prov. Ocaniæ, alt. 3-4000 ped., Novæ Granadæ (Purdie). (Nom. vern. 
* Cardon de la Cordillera.”) | 
I have very fine specimens of this plant sent by Mr. Purdie, but all in a young state, 
with the peduncle wholly covered by the imbricating peltate bracts; but the stamens and 
pollen fully developed, the anther-cells dehisced, and the fruit, though empty, fully formed, 
and its walls crustaceous or bony. It differs from L. mirabile in the much larger size, 
and in being apparently invariably dicecious : I find no paleæ amongst the female flowers. 
The root upon which my specimens grew is as thick as the wrist; it is of considerable 
age, is not much swollen at the surface of contact, has no pith or annual rings, but very 
evident medullary rays. The rhizome of the largest specimens is sunk 3-1 inch ina 
shallow obconical cup in the root. I find no traces of vascular bundles uniting those of 
the rhizome and the root. ; 
The tissue of the rhizome consists of a very dense cortical layer of crustaceous sclerogen- 
cells, which sometimes separates like a bark and encloses a loose cellular mass full of 
starch-granules and vascular bundles traversing the whole in sinuous courses. The 
vascular bundles consist of fusiform ducts and tubes with barred or ringed cylindrical 
or angular walls, surrounded by a laxer tissue of more elongated cells. The arrange- 
^. mení of the peltate scales on the peduncle, and their position relatively to the masses of 
the flowers in the bud, are exactly as in Cynomoriwm ; the lower or dependent porson of 
each bract immediately covers the mamilla of flowers below it, its upper or ascending 
portion covering the dependent base of the scale above it. The vascular bundle of each 
mamilla of flowers does not, however, unite with that of the bract above it, but with that 
below it. — i 
VIII. OmBROPHYTUM, Popp. & Endl. 
This genus bears the same relation to Lophophytum that Balanophora does to Cyno- 
morium, inasmuch as the flowers, instead of being inserted upon the capitulum, are 
Whorled round the pedicel of the bract. In the structure of its female flower it hardly 
VOL. XXII. : 2 2 
