506 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



that of Sarcophyte, and becomes a dry or scarcely drupaceous fruit, 

 the single seed of which encloses a cellulose oily albumen and a small 

 apical embryo. Two (?) species ' of Mystropetalon are distinguished, 



fleshy plants of the 



Cynomorium coccineum. C a p e f Good Hope, 



parasitic, coloured/- 

 with branches covered 

 with scales and termi- 

 nated by spikes of 

 which the male flowers 

 occupy the summit 

 and the female the base. 

 In Cynomorium 3 

 (fig. 487,488), ofwhich 

 only one, 4 Mediterra- 

 nean, 5 species is known , 

 the organization of the 

 gynsecium is nearly 

 the same as in Bala- 

 nopliora ; but the female flower is more complete. It comprises a 

 deep receptacle, the cavity of which lodges the unilocular, uniovulate 

 cell, and its margin bears a perianth of from two to eight folioles 6 

 (sepals ?) coloured like the rest of the plant. The ovule is descending, 

 very incompletely anatropous, with micropyle directed downwards 

 and outwards. 7 The style is terminal, nearly cylindrical, canalicu- 

 late, at summit stigmatiferous obtuse or slightly enlarged. These 

 flowers become hermaphrodite when to the parts just enumerated is 

 added an epigynous stamen, similar to that of the male flower. The 



Fig. 488. Long, sect 

 of fruit. 



Fig. 487. Flowers (>f). 



1 Hart, and Sond. Fl. Cap. ii. 574. — Walp. 

 jinn. iii. 511 (Blepharochlamys). 

 - Red or yellow. 



3 Micheli, Nov. PI. Gen. (1729) 17, t. 12.— L. 

 Gen. n. 922 ; Jinœn. iv. 351, t. 2. — Adans. Fam. 

 des PL ii. 80.— J. Gen. 445.— Lamk. Diet. ii. 241 ; 

 Suppl. ii. 434 (part) ; III. t. 742.— L. C. Rich. 

 Mém. Mns. viii. 420, t. 21.— Endl. Gen. n. 717. 

 — Wedd. Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 3, xiii. 186, t. 11, 

 fig. 43-47; Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. iv. (1857) 613, 

 795 j Arch. Mus. x. 269, t. 24-27.— Hook. f. 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 29, 33, t. 1 A. — Schnizl. 

 Iconogr. t. 39. — Hofmeist. JV. Beitr. i. 572, t. 2 ; 

 Pringsh. Jahrb. i. 109, t. 10 ; Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. 

 4, xi. 37, t. 4, fig. 35-38.— Eichl. Prodr. 122. 



4 ft coccineum L. Spec. ed. 4, 89. — Desf. Fl. 



Atl. ii. 330. — Boisgel. Malt. t. ii. (ex Pritz.) — 

 Tratt. Thes. t. 30.— Guss. Fl. Sic. ii. 561.— 

 Bertol. Fl. Ital. x. 4.— Mor. Fl. Sard. iii. 445. 

 — Webb. Fl. Canar. iii. 431. — Willk. et Lge. 

 Prodr. Fl. Hisp. i. 223.— Parlât. Fl. Ital. iv. 

 382. — C. purpurcnm Rvtr. Sert. Tiansch. Mem. 

 Acad. Pilersb. xiv. 72. — ft purpuremn officinarum 

 Micheli, loc. cit. — Eunomorion Diosc. (ex 

 A pans. loc. cit. 549). 



5 Found in Spain, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, 

 Greece, Malta, Morocco, Algeria, and other 

 Mediterranean localities, in the Canaries, in 

 Palestine, and Arabia, in Soungari and in the 

 valley of Cashgar, etc. 



* Often four or five. 



' Furnished with a single coat. 



