476 Balanophoracecs. \_Balanophora. 



CXIX.— BALANOPHORACE.^. 



Fleshy root-parasites without leaves or chlorophyll, with 

 hard worted rhizomes, through the rind of which the flowering 

 stems burst irregularly, fl. unisexual, monoecious or dioecious, 

 crowded in large heads, the male and fern, very dissimilar; 

 male fl. conspicuous, perianth with 3-5 valvate segm., stam. 

 3-5, connate into a column ; fern. fl. minute, without a peri- 

 anth and consisting simply of a i -celled hyaline ov. with 

 I ovule and a long style, very numerous and crowded and 

 intermixed with clavate bodies (spadicels); fruit minute, i- 

 seeded, embryo consisting of 2 or 3 cells only, in endosperm. 



A very remarkable small Tropical family, simulating the larger fungi 

 in habit. 



BAXiANOPHORA, Forst. 

 For character, see Order. — Sp. about 12; 5 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Monoecious ; fem. head globose ; bracts of male fl. 



shorter than ped. i. B. INDICA. 



Dioecious ; fem. head pear-shaped ; bracts of male fl. 



as long as, or longer than, ped 2. B. Thwaitesii. 



1. B. indica, Wall. Cat. 71. 72^7 (1828). 



Langsdorffia indica., W. & A. in Hook. Ic. PI. iii. t. 205. Thw. Enum. 

 293. C. P. 200. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 237. Hook. Ic. PI. tt. 205, 206. 



Rhizome tuberous with rounded lobes or branches, finely 

 worted all over and with large scattered stellate pustules, pale 

 brown ; flowering stems numerous, crowded, male and fem, 

 from same rhizome, "^-^ in., the male rather the taller, closely 

 covered with few large, oblong -oval, obtuse, imbricated, 

 glabrous, dull orange leaf-scales; male heads 2-2i in., oblong- 

 ovoid, fl. numerous, crowded, on rather stout ped., at first 

 erect, afterwards drooping, bracts much shorter than ped., 

 truncate, per.-scgm. 4 or 5, linear, subacute, \ in., reflexed, 

 head of stam. blunt, white, exserted ; fem. heads nearly 

 globose, 1-I4 in. diam., densely covered with the minute fl. 

 and spadicels, ov. stalked, inserted both on the receptacle 

 and the bases of the spadicels. 



Forests of montane zone, 3000-6000 ft. ; common. Fl. Oct.- 

 March ; male heads dull red, female purple. 



Also in the Nilgiri Mountains, S. India. 



Dries dark brown. I have had ' Jatamansi ' given me as the S. name 

 for this. 



