OF BALANOPHOREÆ. 59 
their roots intertwine with those of other plants: my specimens undoubtedly contract 
broad organic adhesions with the roots they encounter, and in the young state receive 
woody bundles from them. Richard's admirable account of the epoch of fecundation 
agrees with what I have observed in the monecious Balanophore of India. The capitula 
are never self-fertilized; the styles of the female flowers are protruded immediately after 
the fall of the scales, and fertilized by the pollen of a neighbouring capitulum ; the styles 
then fall away, and during the maturation of the fruit, the male flowers are protruded 
and shed their pollen to fertilize another capitulum ; by the time that the latter opera- 
tion is performed the fruits have ripened, are shed, and the peduncle and capitulum 
perish, though the latter still contains an abundant crop of young male flowers, apparently 
destined never to perform their functions. This apparent superfluity of male blossom is 
a very remarkable phænomenon, and not at all comparable with the common one of 
numerous male flowers on one inflorescence never becoming perfected except under 
favourable conditions, for in this case there appears to be a second crop of males after the 
first have performed their office, and after the females of the same and all the other 
capitula are fertilized, and it is difficult to conceive any circumstances arising at all likely 
to call for the operation of these complementary males. 
Martius mentions that a beetle of the family of Curculionide, or its larva, possibly 
assists in the fecundation, as it is found nidulating in the capitula; judging however from 
the fact of one capitulum being fecundated by another, the larvæ could be of little use, 
nor can the beetles themselves be of much, under ordinary circumstances. | 
Martius mentions delicate thread-like radicles as proceeding sometimes from the base 
of the seed (embryo): that author also states that the disposition of the vascular system, 
both in its nature and arrangement, is monocotyledonous, an error to which I have else- 
where alluded in my general remarks on the Order. 
Schott and Endlicher (Meletem. p. 8) observe, that in their H. Brasiliensis there are 
sometimes two and even three cavities in the ovarium, accompanied in the latter case by 
three styles. I have never seen such an arrangement in any specimens of this species, 
but indications of it will be shown to occur in the lobed young flowers of H. Mewicana. 
Swartz (Fl. Ind. Occ.) describes the styles as sometimes solitary, probably from one 
having fallen away, as he did not examine living specimens. | 
In the variety +, for which I am indebted to the late P. B. Webb, Esq., the cellular 
tissue of the periphery consists of vertically elongated and much more delicate utricles, 
often filled with starch and chlorophyll grains: there is also a slender central column of 
true cellular pith surrounded by those woody tubes that are often seen to be the only pith 
of the varieties a. and ß. 
2. Herosts Mexicana, Liebmann, Proceedings of the Scandinavian Meeting of Natural- 
ists, p. 181. 
H. aquatica, Mutis MSS. in Herb. Hook. : vo 
Hab. Mexico montibus ditionis Vera Cruz et Oajaca, alt. 3-5000 ped., Liebmann (v. ic. pict. a cl. auct.). 
Mirador (Linden), Jul. Convallibus humidis Novæ Granadæ ad Melgar (Purdie), Febr. 1846. 
Less variable in form and more so in robust or slender habit than the €— The 
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