12 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



bear flowers. Balanophora is a good example of a type in whicli 

 the vascular tissue of the parasite is continuous with that of the 

 root, and J. Hooker has seen, in macerated plants of B. dioica, the 

 vascular bundles, condensed at the time of vegetation, group them- 

 selves in continuous masses from the base of the divisions of the 

 plant in the rhizome to the inflorescence. The root of the plant on 

 which B, fungosa grows being destitute of medulla, he has seen the 

 branches which it appears to send into the parasites furnished with a 

 medulla, and the wood of these branches terminate abruptly at some 

 distance from the base of the rhizome. The branches, terminated in 

 cylindrical masses of cellular tissue, contained a small number of 

 rayed or imperfectly spiral vessels. J. Hooker rejects the opinion 

 of GcEPPERT and Unger, who consider the rhizome of Balanophora 

 as a body intermediate between the foster plant and the parasite. 

 In B. involucrata in germination, he observed in the axis of the 

 rhizome faint and transparent lines, formed of elongate cellules, 

 without wax or stone, surrounding the rudiments of vascular 

 bundles ; and, without seeing examples, he presumes that these 

 bundles descend thence to the vascular system of the root. 



The rhizome is most frequently destitute of appendages; some- 

 times, however, it bears scales. The appendages of the aerial 

 branches ^ are of varions kinds. At the base is a sort of case or 

 volva which has been compared, erroneously, to that of the higher 

 fungals. Higher up, the scales, which occupy the place of leaves, 

 are alternate, opposite, free or more rarely connate.^ They are often 

 wanting on a considerable portion or the whole length of the branch 

 below the inflorescence. At its level, on the other hand, the scales 

 ordinarily reappear, often enveloping the entire inflorescence in early 

 age, then changing their character and becoming narrow or claviform 

 under the flowers, sometimes peltate at the level of the secondary 

 floral groups, as in Gynomorium, Bracts and bracteoles are often 

 absent under the female flowers. 



' These ofteu emerge from the rhizome as an ^ In Balanophora involucrata Hook f. {Trans. 



adventitious bud. Linn. Soc. xxii. 30, t. 4-7). 



