JVGLAyDACE.E. IIAFFLESIACEJE. 227 



machina dps pontes populaircs do cctto partic do I'ltalio." One or two of tliese 

 customs imiy bo liore noted. In the Laudos it is the custom for the young IVcnc-h- 

 man who is paying liis addresses to a girl, to visit hor in company with two friends, 

 and pass tho niglit in eating and drinking and tolling entertaining and marvellous 

 stories. Towards day-break, when about to take his departure, his sweetheart, 

 if she wishes to reject his suit, signifiiis the fact by placing before her lover a dish 

 of walnuts. Again, in Belgium, on the 29th of September, or St. Slichel's Day, 

 •walnuts are used by girls as a means of discovering the sort of husband they are 

 destined to obtain. A number of walnuts emptied of their contents and then 

 carefully closed are mixed with others which are untampered w4th, and with the 

 eyes shut, a chance selection is made. A full nut gives promise of a good husband, 

 thanks to St. Michel, who of course regulates a rite performed by his worshippers 

 on his special day. Space, however, does not permit a further enumeration of the 

 curious tales connected with the walnut collected by De Gubernatis. 



EsGELHAEDTiA, Lesclunault: 



Flowers moncecious, sessile or nearly so. Male perianth unequally 3-6-cleft on 

 a 3-lobed bract. Hf aniens 5-13, filaments very short. Female flowers very numerous, 

 adhering to the base of a 3- or 5-lobed bract. Perianth consisting of 4-5 teeth or 

 lobes, superior. Styles 2-4, uucqual. Drupes siuall, dry, on the enlarged wing-like 

 3-lobed bract. 



E. SPICATA, Bl. Chittagong, Pegu. Tenasserim. 



Leaflets entire, without net venation, glabrous ; base of female bracts hispid. 



E. viLLOSA, Kz. Hills east of Toung-ngoo and Tenasserim at 1000 to 3000 feet. 



Leaflets sen'ate, rarely entire, with strong conspicuous net-venation, and pubescent 

 beneath. Base of female bracts glabrous. 



AS UR ALES. 

 Floteers hermaphrodite or diclinous. Pcriauth usually coloured. Stamens epi- 

 gynous in the hermaphrodite tiowers. Ocarij inferior, 1 to many-celled. Fruit 

 a capsule or berry. 



Order llAFFLESL\CEiE. 



Flowers di(Ecious, rarely hermaphrodite. Periaidh regular, valvate or imbricate. 

 Leafless root-parasitos. 



To tliis order belongs the remarkable genus Rojflesia (of the lihizunthece of 

 Lindley), one species of which has been noticed in Burma by the Kev. C. Parish, 

 who has kindly contributed tho following note respecting it. 



I copy the following from Lindley, Vegetahle Kiiiffdom, p. 83 : " Rhizogens arc 

 parasitical plants destitute of true leaves, in room of which they have cellular scales. 

 Their stem is either an amorjihous mass, or a ramified mycelium,' sometimes, perhaps 

 always, appearing to be lost in tho tissue of the plant on whicli it grows. No instaiu'o 

 of green colour is known among them ; but they are brown, yellow or ])urple. They 

 are furnished with true flowers having genuine stamens and carpels, surrounded 

 by a trijiartite or (piintiuepartite calyx, or absolutely naked. 



" lihizogcns all agree in being of a fungus-like consistence, and in tlieir habits 

 of living p;irasitically on the roots of other plants. They very generally stain water, 

 or spirits, of a deep blood-red colour. Tlieir forms are exceedingly diversified ; some 

 have the aspect of a mushroom, or dcvclopo a head like a bulrush {Ti/pha). Otliers 

 push forth a thyrsc of flowers, or an elegant panicle ; while some have their blooui 

 in a head like that of some Cyneraceous' plant." 



' Srycflium is the name given to funsiis-spawn. Soft cottony-threads which penetrate the soil 

 in a ramified manner, from whicli, as every gardener who grows mushrooms knows, the plant can 

 be produced. 



- The T/iiilk-headed division of Composites— ior example, the flower of the Globe Artichoke. 



