The rhizome of Dactylanthus is a rounded or amorphous tuberous-like mass 

 rough all over with wart-like tubercles. It varies greatly in size and shape, but 

 is always organically connected with a creeping root of the host, which it appears 

 to surround and terminate, no doubt through the early death of the root beyond 

 the point of attachment of the parasite. I have seen rhizomes nearly 18 in. in 

 diameter, but the average size is not much more than that of the fist. Its develop- 

 ment from the germinating-seed is unknown, the smallest specimens I have seen 

 being from tin. to :^in. in diameter, or about the size of small peas. But as these 

 small specimens clearly show that the rootlet of the host is itself swollen and 

 enlarged at the point of junction with the parasite, it seems most probable that 

 the early develoj^ment is in its main features similar to that of several other 

 genera of Balanophoracew, as Langsdorfpa, Scyhalium, and Balanophora. The 

 rhizome is usually buried beneath the hunms of the forest-floor ; but on the sides 

 of steep declivities, where the soil has presumably been washed away, they may be 

 seen quite exposed. In a little gully at Opepe, near Taupo, I once saw eight or 

 nine in the space of a few yards. 



Every year numerous flowering-stems are produced from the rhizome. These 

 are from 2 in. to 6 in. in height, fleshy when young, clothed with brown imbricating 

 scales, the lower of which are shorter and more laxly placed, the upper longer and 

 much more closely packed. The stems are thus clavate in shape, being often an 

 inch in diameter at the top, although very nmch less below. The uppermost scales 

 form a kind of involucre for the spadices, which in the young state they entirely 

 conceal. The spadices vary in number from 10 to 30 or even more, and are 

 usually from Jin. to Ij in. in length. The flowers are very numerous on the 

 spadices, densely packed above, rather more open below. 



Generally speaking, the flowers are dioecious, the male spadices being produced 

 on one plant and the females on another. I have, however, seen several specimens 

 in which the upper flowers are all male, and the lower flowers all female, one of 

 these examples being shown on the accompanying plate (fig. 10). And it is quite 

 common for the male spadices to have numerous abortive female flowers at the base 

 (figs. 8, 9). The fruit is minute and crustaceous, and is tightly invested by the 

 withered remains of the perianth. Both Mr. Hemsley and myself have failed to 

 find an embryo, but possibly it is not fully differentiated from the albumen of the 

 seed until germination commences. 



Dactylanthus is a very isolated genus. It is remarkable for the reduction of 

 the male flowers to a solitary stamen without any trace of perianth, and the 

 female flowers consist only of a 1 -celled and 1-ovuled ovary closely invested by a 

 perianth which is produced upwards into 2 or 3 subulate processes. The female 

 flowers resemble those of the Mediterranean Cynomorium ; the males are compared 

 by Sir J. D. Hooker to the African genus Thonningia. 



The Balanophoracew have an almost purely tropical distribution. Dactylan- 

 thus is the most southern representative, but the South African Sarcophyte and 

 Mystropetaluni. almost reach a similar latitude. In the Northern Hemisphere 

 Cynomorium, which extends as far as the south of Spain and Italy, is the only genus 

 which crosses the northern tropic. All the rest of the family, comprising ten genera 

 and about thirty-five species, are confined to the warm and humid forests of the 

 Tropical Zone. 



According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the Maori name of Dactylanthus is pua-o-te- 

 reinga, or " the fiower of Hades." I have been unable to find any legend or tradi- 

 tion explaining the origin of such a name. Mr. H. Hill states that in the East Cape 

 district the Maoris apply the name of wae-wae-atua to the plant. This he interprets 

 as meaning " the fingers, the foot, or the toes of the atua " (or spirit). With these 

 two exceptions I have been unable to find any mention of Dactylanthus in Maori 

 literature. Nor is this at all strange, seeing that it is seldom found save in forest 

 districts far from human habitation, and that it is not at all noticeable save in the 

 short flowering-period. 



