B.l LA XOPHOIUCE/E. 



505 



Sarcophyte sangninea. 



Fig. 486. Male flower (}). 



species of Balanophora have been distinguished, found in the warm 

 regions of Asia and Oceania. 1 



Sarcophyte sanguinea," a red and fleshy plant, growing at the Cape, 

 parasitic on the roots of Ekehergia and Acacia, would appear to have 

 the same general organization as Balano- 

 phora, but for its much flatter gynsecium 

 and its ovary being sometimes uniovulate, 

 sometimes bi- or triovulate. The male flower 

 (fig. 486) is composed of three or four val- 

 vate sepals and an equal number of super- 

 posed stamens, inserted in the centre of the 

 flower, formed of a thick free filament and 

 a capitate multiovulate anther, dehiscing by 

 a great number of small pores. 3 Its male flowers are solitary and its 

 female united in rounded capitules. 



iJgstropetalon 4 has also a perianth formed of three folioles. In 

 the male flower they are quite united at the base, and the two pos- 

 terior are so to a greater height. Their prefloration is valvate and 

 the posterior is smaller than the two others. The andrœcium is 

 formed of three stamens superposed to the divisions of the perianth ; 

 but the anterior is sterile, rudimentary or even entirely absent, 

 whilst the two posterior have anthers with two cells, each divided 

 into two cellules, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. 5 In the centre 

 is a rudimentary ovary. In the female flower, the ovary is inferior, 

 surmounted by a long slender style and a superior, tubular or urceo- 

 late, trilobed and caducous perianth. This ovary is organized like 



1 Dactylantltus Taylorii (Hook. f. Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xxii. 425, t. 75, fig. A ; Eichl. Prodr. 149), 

 a plant growing parasitically on the beech and 

 Pittosporum of New Zealand appears to resemble 

 Balanophora and also Langsdorffta. It has naked 

 male flowers, reduced to one or two stamens 

 ■with oilocularanthers.andfemale flowers formed 

 of an ovary surmounted by two or three narrow 

 scales and a filiform style, with obtuse stigmatic 

 summit. The flowers are dioecious, and the in- 

 florescences are divided into numerous small 

 catkins forming a sort of terminal corymb. 

 The internal organization of its gynpecium and 

 fruit are unknown. 



2 Sparm. Kongl. Vet. Ah. Handl. Stochh. xxvii. 

 (1776) 300, t. 7.— Schott et Endl. Melet. 11.— 

 Endl. Gcii. n. 714. — Griff. Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 xix. 338, t. 38. — W t edd. Ann. Se. Nat. sér. 3, xiv. 

 173, t. 10, fig. 34-3S.— Hofmeist. N.Beitr. i. 581, 



t. 13 ; Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 4, xi. 45, t. 4, 5, fig. 

 43-47.— Eichl. Act. Congr. Par. (1867) 138, t. 2, 

 fig. 21, 22; Prodr. 126.— Hook. f. Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xxii. 37, t. I C— Tratt. Arch. i. 89; Tins. 

 90.— Harv. Gen. S.-Afr. PL 300.— Harv. and 

 Sond. PI. Cap. ii. 574. — IchthyosmaWshdtmanni 

 Schlchtl, Linnœa, ii. 671, t. 8 ; iii. 194. 



3 The pollen grains are globular, smooth, and 

 have three pores. 



4 Harv. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. i. ser. ii. 

 385. t. 19, 20 ; G. S.-Afr. PI. 418.— Endl. Gen. 

 Suppl. i. n. 717 1 . — Gkiff. Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. 

 336. — Hook. f. Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 31, 1. 1 B. 

 —Eichl. Jet. Congr. Par. (1867) t. 1, fig. 10 ; 

 prodr. 124. — Blep/iarochlawysT'RESL. Epim. 245. 

 —?Scybalium Harv. Gen. S.-Afr. PL 315 (not 

 Schott and Endl.). 



5 Pollen subcubical, tubercular. 



