LIX. BALANOPHOEACE^. 



This family, the limits of which have been greatly extended, owes 

 its name to the genus Balanophora ^ (fig. 482-485), in which the 



Bahnophora dioica. 



¥ 



Fig. 483. Male flower. 



gynsecium much resembles, in its 

 organization, that of Hippuris. 

 The flowers are unisexual, monoe- 

 cious, or dioecious. In the males 

 (fig. 482-485), the perianth has 

 from three to six ^ and often four 

 valvate divisions,^ above which the 

 receptacle is produced in a small 

 column which bears extrorse an- 

 thers. They are either the same 

 in number as the parts to which 

 they are superposed, or rarely in 

 much greater number.* They 

 have two cells of variable form, 

 dehiscing by two clefts.^ The fe- 

 male flower (fig. 484-485) is naked; 

 it consists of a free, stipitate ovary, 



Fig. 482. Habit (male). 



attenuated to a simple and entire 



1 FoKST. C/iar. Gen.t. 50. — J. Gen. 445. — Lamk. 

 Diet. i. 355 ; III. t. 742.— L.-C. Rich. Mejn. Mus. 

 viii. (1822) 424.— Gcepp. Balanophor. 29, t. 1-3. 

 — ExDL. Gen. n. 718. — Griff. Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 XX. 93, t. 3-6. — Wedd. Attn. Sc. Nat. ser. 3, xiv. 

 163. — Hook. f. Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 44, 426, 

 t. 4-8, 75 B. — EiCHL. Act. Gongr. Bot. Far. 

 (1867) 138, t. 1, fig. 1, 2 ; DC. Prodr. xvii. 103, 



Z2l.—Cynopsole E\dl. Gen. n. Il^.—Sarcocor- 

 dylis Wall. Serb. n. 7249. 



2 Rarely two. 



3 Sepals (?) or petals (?). 



* From 10 to 30 in B. polyandra Griff. 



5 Transverse, or longitudinal, or liippocrepi- 

 form. The pollen is formed of globular, sub-3- 

 gonal seeds, bearing three warty prominences, 



I 



