CXIII. SANTALACEJ;. 557 



stalked, l|-2 in. long, crowued by the persistent perianth-segments, 

 smooth. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 234; Wigl.t, Icon. t. 241 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. 

 V. 3, p. 475 ; Tnlb. Trees, Bomli. ed. 2, p. 294. Pi/ndaria WaUkhiana, 

 A. DC. in DC. Prodr. v. 14, p. 629 ; Bedd. Elor. Sylvat. t. 304.— 

 Flowers : Dec. -Mar. 



Konkan: Bahclll; Konkan Ghats, Talhot. Kanaka: evergreen forests near 

 Yellapur; common near the Nilkund and Dodmune Ghilts, Talhot. — Distrib. India 

 (W. PeninsuLa) ; Ceylon. 



Oedeb CXIV. BALANOPHORACEffi. 



Fleshy leafless often scaly herbs parasitic on roots. Flowers monoecious 

 or dioecious, small or minute, crowded in spadix-like pedunculate heads 

 or cones ; peduncles very stout, simple, annual or arising from an 

 amorphous tuberous, or a branching annual or perennial rootstock. 

 Male elow^ees : Perianth or of 3-8 A'alvate lobes. Stamens in the 

 achlamydeous flowers 1-2 ; in the flowers with a perianth as many as its 

 lobes and opposite to them, or more ; filaments or fleshy, free or 

 connate in a column or tube ; anthers free or connate, 2-many-celled, 

 opening by pores or valves or bursting irregularly. Female flowers : 

 Perianth or confluent with the ovary ; limb or miiuitely toothed. 

 Ovary 1-3-celled ; ovule solitary in each cell, usually pendulous. Fruit 

 minute, 1-seeded. Seed usually adherent to the pericarp ; albumen 

 densely granular and oily (rarely floury) ; embryo minute. — Distrib. 

 Genera 14; species about 40, tropical or sublropieal. 



1. BALANOPHORA, Forst. 



Glabrous fleshy herbs with a tuberous rootstock, w-arted with lenticels 

 abou.ndiug in a waxy seci'etion. Peduncles bursting through the root- 

 stock, which forms an irregularly toothed or lobed ring or short sheath 

 at its base. Flowers minute, intermixed with clavate cellular bodies, 

 monoecious or dioecious. Male elowers : Perianth of 2-6 valvate 

 lobes. Stamens 2-go ; filaments or connate in a solid column. Female 

 flowers: Perianth 0. Ovary ellipsoid, compressed, J -celled, narrowed 

 into the slyle; ovule solitary, pendulous; stylo long, slender; stigma 

 teriiiinal. Seed globose ; albumen oily ; embryo subglobose, consisting 

 of 2-3 cells only.- — Distrib. Eastern Asia, Australia, Polynesia ; species 

 about 12. 



1. Balanophora indica, WaU. Cat. (1828) 7247. Ehizome 

 tuberous with i-ounded lobes or branches, finely warted all over with 

 large scattered stellate pustules, pale brown. Flowering stems numerous, 

 crowded, male and female from the same rhizome, 3-6 in. long, the 

 male rather the longer, closely covered w ith large ovate-oblong obtuse 

 imbricate glabrous yellow or orange scales. Male flowers crowded in 

 ovoid-oblong heads 2-24 in. long, dull-i'ed, drying dark-brown ; pedicels 

 rather stout, at first erect, then drooping ; bracts much shorter than the 

 pedicels, truncate. Perianth white; segments 4 or 5, linear, subacutt>, 

 reflexed, ^ in. long. Female flowers in nearly globose velvety heads 

 li in. ill diam., purplish, drying dark-brown, densely covered with the 



