OF BALANOPHOREÆ. 57 
which probably represents a rudimentary ovary. The filaments are free just below 
the anthers, to a greater or shorter distance, which varies in the individual species, 
as does the length of the filaments. The anthers burst introrsely; they are firmly 
united into an obtusely trigonous mass enclosing a central cavity; each is 4-celled, the 
mass consequently being originally 12-celled: the cells are shown in a transverse section 
to be disposed in two concentric series, of which the inner has much the smallest cells ; 
generally the two rows become confluent. E 
The female flower offers little worthy of notice, except the occasionally 3-lobed young 
flowers, indicating three ovaria, as figured in Tag. XVI. figs. 8,9, 10; and the anomalous 
membrane enveloping the terminal cells of the articulated threads in 77. Mexicana, which 
is probably mucous, and may be the source of the fluid which is said to bathe the capitula 
of some species during flowering, and thus to facilitate the dispersion of the pollen. 
1. Hetosis Guyaneysts, Rich. Mém. Mus. viii. p. 416. t. 20; Martius, Nov. Gen. et Sp. 
Plant. Bras. iii. p. 184, t. 300 & 208. fig. 2. 
Caldasia Cayennensis, Mutis, fid. Steud. 
Cynomorium Cayennense, Swartz, Fl. Ind. Occ. i. 13. 
Var. a. pedunculo elongato gracili, volva v. involucro ad basin pedunculi. 
Var. 8. pedunculo abbreviato, volva v. involucro ad basin pedunculi. H. Brasiliensis, Schott & Endl. 
Meletem. p. 12. 
Var. y. andicola, pedunculo brevi, volva v. involucro 4-6-fido infra capitulum sito. 
Hab. Sylvis humidis Guiana, Richard; Para, Martius, Spruce (Aug.-Dec.) ; Jamaica et Trinidad, Purdie 
(May 1848); Berbice, Schomburgk ; Pampas, Buenos Ayres, Miers.—Var. 8. Rio de Janeiro, Miers ; 
Serra d’Estrella, Brasiliæ, ScAott.—Var. y. Vegas de Rio Quindiu, Goudot (in Herb. Webb, No. 140). 
This remarkable plant has been well described by Swartz, and again (with illustrations) 
by the elder Richard, and by Von Martius. It appears to be common in damp woods, 
on the east coast of South America, ranging from Trinidad to south of the Equator. It 
varies extremely in size, being from an inch to nearly a foot in height; with slender or 
robust peduncles and rhizomes, and ovoid or subcylindrical capitula, which (according to 
à drawing by Sir Robert Schomburgk) are sometimes lobed or even deeply bifid at the 
summit. Schott and Endlicher have made a species of the var. Brasiliensis, because of 
its 3-lobed involucre and small size; but the involucre is generally 3-lobed, and is 
described as such in the Guiana species by Richard and Martius, and Miers's Brazilian 
specimens have 5-6-lobed involucres. 
The rhizome creeps to great distances in spongy soil, forming adhesions with the roots 
it encounters. A transverse section of Trinidad specimens displays an arrangement of 
the tissues in several respects closely resembling that of many Menispermous plants. 
The axis, or position of the pith, is occupied by a cylinder of elongated, hard, woody, 
cylindrical tubes, with very narrow, often interrupted cavities, and this sometimes sur- 
rounds a central pith of loose hexagonal cells*. These tubes become broader and shorter 
* The occasional presence of a cellular pith within this woody axis is important, as it reduces the type - which 
Langsdorfia belongs, which has no cellular pith, to that of most other Balanophoreæ. It is a curious fact, that in many 
Balanophoreæ the relation of the vascular system to the cellular is reversed, in respect of the latter being excessively 
dense, hard and rigid, whilst the true woody system is composed of extremely lax, soft, thin-walled vessels,—of ducts, 
‚in fact, with little or no pleurenchyma. 
VOL. XXII. r 
