Pilostyles.] cxi. cytinace.e (baker and Wright). 131 



Species about 40, in tlie warmer regions of both hemispheres. 



Flowers unisexual. Anthers in several whorls around a 



central column ........ 1. Pilosttles. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Anthers in a single whorl itiside 



the periiinth-tube . . .... 2. Hydxoea. 



1. PILOSTYLES, Guillemin in Ann. Sc. Nat. 2«»« ser. ii. 19. 



Flowers unisexual. Male : Bracts 2-3, linear-lanceolate. Calyx 

 4-partite. Petals 4-8, free, at length spreading at the apex, persistent, 

 inserted by a broad base. Stamens united into a column bearing 

 several series of anthers beneath a pileus-like papillose fringed apex, or 

 the filaments connate into a tube around the rudimentary pistil ; anthers 

 1-celled, bursting at the apex. Female : Calyx and corolla as in the 

 male. Ovary inferior, surmounted by a lobed epigynous disk, 1-celled, 

 ovuliferous over the whole of the interior ; style short, conical ; stigma 

 capitate. Berry globose, surrounded by the persistent floral envelopes. 

 — Small parasitic plants consisting of flowers surrounded by a few 

 scales growing on the branches of trees, whose bark forms small cups 

 at their base. — Apodaidhes, Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pi. iii. 118, 

 partly. 



Species 8, chiefly in Tropical America, one in the Orient. 



1. P. aethiopica, WelvK in Traiis. Linn. Soc. xxvii. 67, t. 22. A 

 small parasite growing in clusters on the smaller branches of trees, and 

 sending slender threads into the bast, first appearing as hemispherical 

 nodules. Bracts imbricate, shortly oblong or almost rotundate, about 

 1 lin. long, like the perianth bright blood-red. Male flowers : Perianth- 

 segments 4-8, oblong, obtuse, slightly longer than the innermost bracts, 

 concave, callous at the base inside. Disk fleshy, angular. Staminal 

 column cylindrical, truncate ; anthers numerous in a single series around 

 the mouth of the column, 1-celled, dehiscing by a short transverse slit ; 

 pollen globose, smooth, white. Female flowers : Perianth-segments 

 similar to those of the male. Ovary 1-celled ; placentas parietal, 

 usually confluent, rarely 4 distinct; ovules numerous; style shortly 

 conical, thick ; stigma hemispherical, entire, rarely 2-3-lobed. — Engl. 

 Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 201 ; Hiern in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 908 ; 

 Solms-Laub. in Engl. Pflanzenr, Rafllesiacese, 15. 



JmO-wbt Guinea, Angola: Huilla; forests of Morro de Monino, 5500 ft., 

 parasitic on branchlets of the panda tree {Berlinia paniculata, Benth.), Wehoitsch, 

 529! 529b! 



2. HYDNORA, Thunb. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 120. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Perianth superior; tube short or long; 

 lobes 3-5, valvate, fleshy, triquetrous above, channelled or concave in 

 the lower part inside. Anthers forming a flexuous 3-4-lobed ring in 



