\ 



OF BALANOPHORE^. 49 



these plants grow, sudden accessions of rain may often alter the relative level of a plant 

 and the soil in which it grows. 



M. WeddeU remarks the absence of styles in this species as constant ; hut all his speci- 

 mens being advanced, and these organs being extremely caducous, I am not disposed to 

 lay much stress upon the fact of none of the specimens presenting them. The form of 

 the fruit differs from that of i. mirabile, being much less contracted at the base. This 

 however is a variable character, and I am inclined to agree with M. "Weddell in suspect- 

 ing the possibility of its being only a variety of the Brazilian species. 



The arrangement of the stamina upon the lobes or mamillse of the peduncle appears to 

 be definite, though at first sight they appear in-egularly clustered. M. Weddell's figiu-e 

 and specimens show that the whole sui-face of each maimlla is covered with lobed conical 

 masses, which are connate male flowers, each consisting of two mamillse placed right and 

 left to the axis, and two stamens, one opposite each mamilla. 



3. LoPHOPHTTUM "VYeddellii, nob. {svpra, p. 30). (Tab. IX.) 



Hab. In sylvis humidis montium prov. Ocaniae, alt. 3-4000 ped., Novae Granadae {Purdie). {Nom. vern. 

 " Cardon de la CordiUera.") 



I have very fine specimens of this plant sent by Mr. Purdie, but all in a young state, 

 with the peduncle whoUy covered by the imbricating peltate bracts ; but the stamens and 

 pollen fully developed, the anther-cells dehisced, and the fruit, though empty, fully formed, 

 and its waUs crustaceous or bony. It differs from L. mirabile in the much larger size, 

 and in being apparently invariably dioecious : I find no palese amongst the female flowers. 



The root upon which my specimens grew is as thick as the wrist ; it is of considerable 

 age, is not much swoUen at the surface of contact, has no pith or annual rings, but very 

 evident medullary rays. The rhizome of the largest specimens is sunk -J-l inch in a 

 shallow obconical cup in the root. I fiend no traces of vascular bundles uniting those of 

 the rhizome and the root. 



The tissue of the rhizome consists of a very dense cortical layer of crustaceous sclerogen- 

 cells, which sometimes separates like a bark and encloses a loose cellular mass full of 

 starch-granules and vascular bundles traversing the whole in sinuous courses. The 

 vascular bundles consist of fusiform ducts and tubes vfifh barred or ringed cylindrical 

 or angular walls, surrounded by a laxer tissue of more elongated cells. The arrange- 

 ment of the peltate scales on the peduncle, and their position relatively to the masses of 

 the flowers in the bud, are exactly as in Cynoniormm ; the lower or dependent portion of 

 each bract immediately covers the mamilla of flowers below it, its upper or ascending 

 portion covering the dependent base of the scale above it. The vascular bundle of each 

 mamilla of flowers does not, however, unite with that of the bract above it, but with that 

 below it. 



VIII. Ombrophytum, Poepp. & Endl. 



This genus bears the same relation to Loplwphytum that Balanophora does to Cyno- 

 niormm, inasmuch as the flowers, instead of being inserted upon the capitulum, are 

 whorled round the pedicel of the bract. In the structure of its female flower it hardly 



VOL. XXII. H 



