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V. Ohsei^tations on the Morphology and Anatomy of the Genus Mjstropetalon, Harv. 



By E,. J. Hauvey-Gibson, M.A., F.l/.S., Frofessor of Botany in the JJnlverslty of 



lAverpool. 



(Plates 15 & 16.) 



Ecad 5th June, 1913. 



In the ' Annals of Natural History,' vol. ii. no. 12, p. 385 (1839), Sir W. J. Hooker 

 communicated a short paper by Dr. W. H. Harvey, " On two species of a new South 

 African genus of the Natural Order Rhizantheae of Blume," in which Harvey furnishes 

 brief diagnoses of two species of what is now recognised as a genus of Balanophoracese, viz. 

 Mystro^getalon Thomii and M. Polemanni. In a memoir on " The root parasites referred 

 by authors to Rhizanthege, &c.", Griffith provides a more detailed diagnosis of M. Thomii 

 with critical remarks, based on specimens obtained from Harvey (Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 vol. xix. 1845, p. 303), and fourteen years later Sir J. D. Hooker, in his paper " On the 

 structure and affinities of the Balanophoraceae " (Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxii. 1856, p. 1), 

 contributes some additional observations on the subject. Briefer references are made to 

 the genus in Harvey and Sonder's ^Elora Capensis' (vol. ii. p. 573, 1861-2), in Benthara 

 and Hooker's * Genera Plantarum ' (vol. iii. p. 234, 1880), and in Baillon's ' Natural 

 History of Plants' (Engl Ed, vol. vi. p. 505, 1880). A short account of the genus is 

 given also by Engler (Pflanzenfamilien, III. i. 1889, p. 252), but Marloth in his ' Das 



Kapland, insonderheit das Eeich der Kapflora' (Wissenschaftliclie Ergebnisse der 



deutschen Tiefsee-expedition auf dem Dampfer 'Valdivia,' 1898-99, vol. li. pt. 3 

 p. 301) merely menticms the occurrence of the two species in the neighbourhood of 



Caledon, Cape Colony. 



While on a visit to South Africa in 1905, my friend, Mrs. Solly, of Knor Hoeck, Sir 

 Lowry's Pass, Cape Colony, told me that both species grew in or near the pass leading 

 over the Hottentot Holland Mountains, from Sir Lowry's Pass to Caledon. I had no 

 opportunity, during my visit, of searching for them, but Mrs. Solly kindly undertook, if 

 possible, to' obtain specimens of M. Thomii for me. This she was able to do, two years 



the 



go, when I received from her several specimens not only in full flower but with the 

 rhizomes (hitherto undescribed) and the host's roots intact. Mrs. Solly described the 

 specimens as those of M. Thomii, but after examination, as will be seen later, I found 

 that they could not be referred to that species and, as I think, not even to " 

 species, M. Bolemanni, the only description of which, so far as I am aware, is in the 

 short paper by Harvey in the ' Annals of Natural History,' quoted above. Mrs. Solly 

 informs me that the host roots are those of a Frotea, although she says she had 

 previouslv found M. Thomii parasitic on grass roots. The first time the rhizome of that 



SECO>D SERIES.— BOTANY, VOL. VIII. 



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