514 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



2 ? Dactylanthus Hook. f. — Flowers dioecious naked ; males 

 consisting of 1, 2 stamens; filaments very short; anthers subovoid, 

 2-rimose. Female flowers consisting of bare gynœcium (of Balano- 

 phora) ; internal structure and fruit not known. — A fleshy parasitic 

 plant, in appearance like Balanophora ; rhizome (starch bearing ?) 

 tuberous, irregularly lobed ; aerial floral branches 1-sexual ; volva 

 short basilar ; scales imbricate, ovate or oblong, persistent ; inflo- 

 rescence terminal consisting of amentiform ebracteate spadicules 

 disposed in a subrotund corymb (?) ; flowers (very small) ebracteate. 

 (New Zealand.) — See p. 505. 



3. Sarcophyte Sparm. — Flowers dioecious. Male flower : 

 perianth 3-4-lobed ; lobes concave within, valvate or subinduplicate. 

 Stamens 3, 4, opposite folioles of perianth and adnate with them at 

 base ; filaments cylindrical erect ; anthers terminal capitate multi- 

 locellate ; cellules irregularly poricidal. Female flower naked. 

 Germen short sessile, crowned with short discoid papillose style, 

 1-locular, l-3-o vulate ; ovules descending anatropous subovoid, 

 reduced to an amniotic sac (?) ; funicle short, 1-cellular. Fruit 

 scantily drupaceous (similar to germen and a little larger) ; putamen 

 obtusely 3-gonal. Seed 1, descending, completely filling cavity of 

 pericarp ; albumen large-celled, oily ; embryo subcentral globose 

 small-celled oily. — Fleshy (coloured) plants ; rhizome tuberous 

 generally lobed, esquamate ; aerial floriferous branches sheathed at 

 base with short volva ; scales persistent ; flowers in a terminal 

 bracteate ramose raceme (?) ; secondary branches ebracteate bearing 

 solitary male flowers or capitate female flowers connate at base. 

 (South. Australia.) — See p. 505. 



4. Mystropetalon Harv. — Flowers monoecious. Male flower : 

 perianth 3-phyllous ; folioles unguiculate cochlear-subspathulate 

 unequal, connate at base, valvate ; 2 posterior more highly connate ; 

 anterior a little shorter narrower. Stamens 3, opposite folioles of 

 perianth ; anterior sterile smaller or scarcely perceptible ; 2 posterior 

 fertile ; filaments slender adnate to perianth at base ; anthers ovoid 

 extrorse, versatile ; cells 2, 2-locellate, longitudinally rimose. 

 Gynuocium rudimentary sterile. Female flower : receptacle ovoid 

 concave, enclosing adnate germen and bearing perianth inserted on 

 margin above; folioles 3, connate at base in pitcher or tube, free 



