192 BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHOREE, RAFFLESIACE®. 
the whole mode of growth. The phenomena of the swelling of the embryo into a 
tubercle after it has chanced upon a nutritive root, the destruction of the cortex, 
the exposure of the wood at that part of the root where the tubercle is adnate, and 
the derangement of the course of the woody bundles ensue, it is true, in the same 
manner as in the other Balanophorez; but the frayed wood-bundles of the foster- 
root only form quite short lobules which penetrate but a short distance into the 
parasitic tuber-stock, whilst the vascular bundles, formed meantime in the latter, 
adhere to them in such a manner that they might be mistaken for direct continua- 
tions of them. 
When once the parasitic tubers have thus become adnate to a root, and by 
means of this union are provided with food, they grow round the nutrient roots in 
such a way that the latter appear to perforate or actually to issue from the 
tubers. They are always roundish, brown outside, and warty, but without 
scales, and they never produce inflorescences directly, but put forth in the first 
place several whitish or yellowish runners varying in thickness from a quill to a 
finger, which creep along horizontally under the ground, bifurcating, and becoming 
interlaced with other ramifications. At the places of contact they coalesce, and so 
occasionally form a net-work which is almost inextricably entangled with the root- 
system of the plant preyed upon. Whenever a runner of this kind comes into 
contact with a living root belonging to the host-plant, the surface of contact at once 
swells up. The part affected is converted into a tuberous mass and becomes adnate 
to the root, the process being the same as occurs in the case of the tubercle pro- 
duced from seed. A net-work of runners thus connected with the root-system of 
the nutrient plant at several spots by means of tubers as large as peas might be 
compared to the reticulum woven by Lathrewa round the roots of its hosts; but, 
apart from the size, there is the essential difference that inflorescences are never pro- 
duced from the white threads of the ramifying and sucker-bearing roots of Lathrwa, 
whereas the runners of Helosis afford points of origin for new inflorescences. Warts 
are produced on the surfaces of the thicker cylindrical runners, and within these 
are developed the buds of the inflorescences. The outer coat of the warts is then 
rent open at the top and constitutes a little cup, out of which grows a naked, scale- 
less shaft terminated by an oval spadix. Seeing that the runners rest horizontally 
under the earth whilst the shafts ascend bolt upright from the ground, the latter 
are always at right angles to the runners, of which they are to be regarded as 
branches. 
The flowers are grouped in capitula, presenting in the spadix a dense mass. 
They are protected by peculiar bract-scales, each of which by itself is like a nail 
with a facetted head. These heads are in close contact with one another, so that 
the young inflorescence seems to be inclosed in a panelled coat of mail, and 
resembles to a certain extent a closed fir-cone. By degrees, however, these bract- 
scales detach themselves and fall off, and thus the flowers, till then roofed over by 
them, become visible. When the seeds are mature, the whole runner concerned in 
the production of the inflorescence, and usually also the tuber which served as the 
OE 
