r>04, 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Balanophora fungoia. 



style. In the single cell of the ovary is a parietal and superior pla- 

 centa supporting a descending, afiatropous ovule, reduced to a nucule.' 

 The fruit is drupaceous with a fleshy layer generally very thin, 

 monospermous putamen, and the seed filling the cavity of the latter 

 consists of an abundant oily albumen, in the upper portion of v^hich 

 is lodged a very small embryo.^ 



Balanophora consists of fungiform fleshy and parasitical plants ^ of 

 very peculiar habit. They have a simple, lobed or ramified tuberous 

 rhizome, often sprinkled with star-lobed prominences from which 



spring the aerial branches, 

 coloured yellow or red and 

 covered with scaly bracts, 

 alternate, or opposite and 

 connate, with parallel ner- 

 vures; terminated by a 

 cylindro-conical, claviform 

 or globular floriferous recep- 

 tacle, clothed with flowers* 

 of one (fig. 482) or both 

 sexes. In the latter case, 

 the males are below, and 

 the females above, much 

 more numerous and smaller. 



Fig. 484. Femaie flowers. Fi^^. 485^^Long.^8^ect. rpj^g ^^^^^ ^^^ pedicellate, 



often reflexed and accom- 

 panied with axillate bracts. The females are in small spikes often 

 terminating in an enlarged, globular or claviform body.^ A dozen" 



sometimes little developed, with the exterior 

 coat smooth. 



' Suspended hy a unicellular funicle, it is 

 composed of a nucule formed of a small number 

 of cellules. (On the structure of the gynsecium 

 see HoFMEiST. Pritigsh. Jahrb. i. 110, t. 18; iV' 

 Beitr. 685, t. 14, 15 ; Ann. Se. Nat. ser. i, xi 

 49, t. 5, 6, fig. 48-56.) 



2 It is formed of a very small number of 

 cellules (often two or three). 



^ On the roots of very various trees {Acer, 

 Quercus, Sibiscus, Ficus {?), Eucalyphis, Viret/a, 

 Thibau^ia, Aralincece, etc.). 



"* Yellow or red. 



* It has been considered as the summit of the 

 secondary axis, and the name of spadicel has 

 been given to it (Eichleb). 



^ W. Spec. V. 177 {Cynomorium). — Bl. Enum. 

 PI. Jav. i. 87. — ScHOTT et Endl. Melet. 12.— 

 JuNOH, Nov. Acta Acad. Nat. Cur. xviii. Suppl. 

 i. 203, 1. 1, 2.— RoYLE, J«. PI. Bimal. 330, t, 99. 

 — Thw. Unum. PI. Zeyl. 293.— Ae.v. Book. Icon. 

 t. 205, 206 (Langidorffia) . — TJng. Ann. Wien. Mus. 

 ii. t. 2. — Becc. Att. Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. Mil. xi. 

 197 ; N. Giorn. Bot. Ital. i. 65, t. 2-4.— Benth. 

 Fl. Austral, vi. 232. 



