436 cxxi. BALANOPnoREiE (botting hemsley). [Sarcophyte, 



receptacle, 1 -celled (tricarpellary, Eichler) ; stigma large, sessile, discoid ; 

 ovules 3, pendulous. '•' Fruit similar to the ovary though slightly larger ; 

 epicarp fleshy ; endocarp hard, the carpels of the separate flowers 

 crowded, but not consolidated as in a truly compound fruit. Seed filling 

 the cavity ; albumen large-celled ; embryo very small, central." — Herb 

 parasitic on the roots of various Mlmosece, &c., forming a large 

 irregularly lobed tuber, bearing erect fleshy branched bracteate in- 

 florescences, scaly at the base only. Volva annular,'; coriaceous, 2-d 

 lin, long. Whole plant deep crimson, emitting a very unpleasant odour 

 resembling putrid fish. — Ichthyosma, Schlecht. in Linnsea, ii. 671, t. 8 ; 

 iii. 194. 



1. S. sanguinea, SjMvrm. in Kongl. Vet. Akad. Ilandl. StocJch. 

 xxvii. (1776), 800, t. 7. Glabrous in all parts. Tuber irregularly 

 lobed, verrucose, 2-5 in. in diam., or probably sometimes larger. Male 

 inflorescence usually taller and looser than the female and sometimes 

 exceeding a fopt in height ; in the tropical specimens seen consisting of 

 a main axis about | in. thick, scaly at the base and bearing numerous 

 lateral racemes 1|--J in. long, arising in the axils of lanceolate bracts 

 from J to I in. long. Male flowers crowded, very shortly pedicellate, 

 ebracteolate, about 3 lin. in diam. Perianth-lobes 2-4, usually 3, thick, 

 fleshy, cucullate, 1-1 J lin. in diam., enclosing the opposite stamens. 

 Female inflorescence (described from extra-tropical specimens) capitate- 

 paniculate, very dense, subglobose or oblong, 3-9 in. high, branched to 

 the third or fourth degree. Heads crowded, globose, 4-6 lin. in diam., 

 very shortly pedunculate, destitute of involucre. Female flowers very 

 densely crowded, J-J lin. in diam,, destitute of perianth, free from each 

 other. Ovary immersed in the fleshy naked receptacle ; style none ; 

 stigma discoid, of the same diameter as the flower. — Hook, f, in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xxii. t. 1, fig. C ; Eichler in DC. Prodr. xvii. 127. Ichthyosma 

 Wehdemanni, Schlecht. in Linnsea, ii. 671, t. 8. 



If lie Iiand. Kritish P^ast Africa: Kibwezi, damp, low forest at about 3300 

 feet, on the roots of a tliorn-tree; iuHorescence deep red, Schpffler, 361! Scoit- 

 Elliot, 6293 ! 



Also in extrati'opical South Africa. 



It is a little doubtful whether the Uganda perfect male specimens are of the same 

 species as the extra-tropical plant, which appears to have a much more compoundly 

 branched male inHoresccnce. But as Engler {Pjl. Ost-Afr. C. 168) refers Zanzibar 

 and. Kilimanjaro specimens to S. sanguinea^ he has been provisionally followed here. 



2. THONNINGIA, Vahl; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 236. 



Flowers unisexual, arranged in involucrate unisexual or bisexual 

 heads, similar to those of many of the Cynaroidece, sessile. Heads solitary, 

 pedunculate or sessile. Scales of the involucre rigid, in several or 

 many series. Male flowers relatively few and large, in separate heads 

 or in one or more circumferential series in the bisexualheads. Perianth 

 of usually ?>~h lobes unequal in length and degree of attachment to the 

 staminal column; sometimes regular or only slightly oblique; some- 



