LIX. BALANOPHORACE^. 



This family, the limits of wliich. 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 Eippuris. 

 The flowers are unisexual, monoe- 

 cious, or dioecious. In the males 

 (fig. 482-485), the perianth has 

 from three to six ^ and often four 

 valvate divisions,^ 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.^ The fe- 

 maleflower (fig. 484-485) is naked; 

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



Fig. 482. Hatit (male). 



^ FoRST. Char. Gen.i. 50. — 3.GenAi6. — Lamk. 

 Diet. i. 355 ; III. t. 742.— L.-C. Eich. M4m. Mus. 

 Tiii. (1822) 424.— GcBPP. Balanophor. 29, t. 1-3. 

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

 XX. 93, t. 3-6. — Wedd. Ann. Sc. Nat. sec. 3, xiv. 

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

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

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



Zll.—Oympsole Endl. Gen. n. IW.—Sareocor- 

 dylis Wall. Serb. n. 7249. 



^ Rarely two. 



' Sepals (?) or petals (?). 



* From 10 to 30 in B. polyandra G-eipp. 



* Transverse, or longitudinal, or hippoorepi- 

 form. Tlie pollen is formed of globular, sul)-3- 

 gonal seeds, bearing three- warty prominences. 



