TRANSACTIONS 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



I. On the Structure and Affinities o/'Balanophorese. 

 By Joseph Dalton Hooker, Esq., M.D., F.B.S., F.L.S^SfC. 



Read February 6th, February 20th and June 19th, 1855. 



The materials from wMch tMs Essay has been drawn up, have been accuniulating on 

 my hands for a considerable period. They consist principally of — 1. A very complete set 

 of the American species, especially of the Selosidece, formed at the desu'e of Sir WUliam 

 Hooker, in New Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad, in 1846 and 1847, by Mr. William 

 Purdie, at that time collector for the Royal Gardens at Kew. He gathered nine species, 

 including several new genera, and preserved many specimens of most, both dried and in 

 spirits. 2. I am indebted to Prof. Liebmann of Copenhagen for the species collected by 

 him in Mexico, together with drawings of them ; a translation of his paper on Thonningia 

 and Selosis mexicana, read before the Society of Scandinavian Naturalists at Christiania ; 

 and the loan of the original specimens of Thonningia, from the herbaria of Vahl and 

 Schumacher. 3. Mr. Miers has placed at my disposal his Brazilian specimens of Langs- 

 dorffia hypogcea and Selosis guyanensis, from Rio and the La Plata district, together with 

 his sketches of them made on the spot. 4. Sir Robert Schomburgk has given me his 

 drawings of the same genera, made in Guiana; and I have also received from other 

 travellers numerous specimens of them. 5. For the South African genera Sarcophyte 

 and Mystropetalon I am indebted to Dr. Harvey, who, during his residence at the Cape, 

 communicated beautiful specimens of them to Su* WUliam Hooker. 6. Of the Indian 

 BalanophorecB I have very extensive suites of specimens indeed ; having had, in the Hima- 

 laya and Khasia mountains, the opportunity of studying several species in many stages 

 of growth. I have also examined most of the specimens collected by Mr. Griffith himself, 

 from which he described the species for the Society's Transactions ; and I have received 

 the Peninsular and Ceylon B. indica from Wight, Gardner, and Thwaites. 7. Su* William 

 Hooker has procured the Javanese species from Mr. Thomas Lobb, Prof, de Vriese of 

 Leydcn, and others. 8. For specimens of the original species of Balanophora (B. fun- 

 gosa of Forster), I am indebted to Mr. M'GHliATay, who found it on the N.E. coast of 

 VOL. XXII. B 



