LIX. BALANOPHORACE.E. 



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

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



Balanophora dioica. 



Fig. 483. Male flower. 



gynsecium much resembles, in its 

 organization, that of Hlppuris. 

 The flowers are unisexual, monoe- 

 cious, or dioecious. In the males 

 (fig. 482-485), the perianth bas 

 from three to six 2 and often four 

 valvate divisions, 3 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. 5 The fe- 

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

 it consists of a free, stipitate ovary, attenuated to a simple and entire 



Fig. 482. Habit (male). 



' Forst. Cnar.Geti.t. 50.— 3. Gen. ii5. — Lamk. 

 Diet. i. 355 ; III. t. 742.— L.-O. Rich. Mém. Mus. 

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

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

 xx. 93, t. 3-6. — Wedd. Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 3, xiv. 

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

 t. 4-8, 75 B. — Eichl. Act. Congr. Bot. Par. 

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



321. — Cynopsole Endl. Gen. n. 719.— Sarcocor- 

 dylis Wall. Herb. n. 7249. 



2 Rarely two. 



3 Sepals (?) or petals (?). 



4 From 10 to 30 id B. polyandra Griff. 



5 Transverse, or longitudinal, or hippocrepi- 

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

 gonal seeds, bearing three warty prominences, 



