Rhizogens.] 



BALANOPHORACEiE. 



89 



Order XXVI. BALANOPHORACE^.— Cynomoriums. 



Balanaphoreae, Rich, in Mi^m. Mux. 8. 429. (1822) ; Encllichcr Melctemata, p. 10. (1832) ; gen. xxxix. 

 Meismr, p. 3(J6 ; Junghuns in nov. act. xviii. suppl. ; Griffith, Proceedings Linn. Soc. No. xxii. 



Diagnosis. — Stems amorphous, fungoid ; pecUindes'scahj jflo^cers in spilrs ; ovules solitary, 

 pendulous ; fruit one-seeded. 

 2 1 



Fig. LXIII. 



Fungus-like plants, parasitical upon roots, with fleshy, horizontal, branched stems, and 

 peduncles covered by imbricated scales. FloAvers monoecious, collected in dense heads, 

 which are romidish or oblong, usually bearing both male and female flowers, but 

 occasionally ha\"ing the sexes distinct ; the receptacle covered with scales or setae 

 variable in form, here and there bearing also peltate thick scales ; rarely naked. 

 ^ flowers pedicellate ; calyx deeply .3-parted, equal, spreading, with somewhat concave 

 segments ; stamens 1-3 (seldom more), epigynous, with both united filaments and an- 

 thers ; the latter 3. $ ovary mferior, 1-2-celled, 

 1-2-seeded, crowned by the Umb of the calyx, 

 which is either marginal and nearly inverted, 

 or consists of from 2 to 4 unequal leaflets ; 

 ovule pendulous ; style 1, seldom 2, fihform, 

 tapering ; stigma simple, terminal, rather con- 

 vex. Fi*uit 1 -celled. Seed, in Cynomorium coc- 

 cineum, solitary, consisting of mucilaginous al- 

 bumen, in which angular cells of gum and starch- 

 granules are loosely an-anged ; embryo very 

 minute in proportion to the alluimen, roundish, 

 whitish, enclosed beneath the skin, undi\-ided. 

 The solitary ovules of these plants, sus- 

 pended from the apex of the cells, distinguish 

 them positively from Patmaworts and the 

 Cistusrapes. It is, however, to the latter 

 that they are most similar in habit. In all 

 cases they seem to have an amorphous fungous development in the first instance, out of 



Fig. LXIII. -Scybalium fungiforme. 1. A male plant; 2. a female ; .3. male flowers with hairs be- 

 tween them ; 4. females ; 5. a vertical section of a female, with the two pendulous o\-ules ; 6. a section 

 across a ripe friiit ; 7. seeds '/ 



Fig. LXIV.- Cynomorium coccineum. 1. A section of tlie lipe fruit, showing the embryo on the 

 right of the albumen ; 2. a portion of the nucleus very highly magnified, showing the embryo and tlie 

 angular cells among which it lies. N.B. These cells are separated by thepressure of a compressorium. 



