BALANOPHORA CEM. 



505 



!« aangumea. 



Fig. 486. Male flower (5). 



species of Balanophora have been distinguished, found in the ■warm 

 regions of Asia and Oceania.^ 



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 sometim^^s 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.^ Its male flowers are solitary and its 

 female united in rounded capitules. 



Mystro'petalon * 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 androecium 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.^ 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 



> Dactylanthus Tayldrii (Hook. p. Trans. lAnn. 

 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 Xangsdorffia . It has naked 

 male flowers, reduced to one or two stamens 

 withbilooular anthers, and female flowers formed 

 of an ovary surmounted by two or three narrow 

 scales and a filiform style, with obtuse stigmatio 

 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 gynsecium and 

 fruit are unknown. 



2 Sparm. Kotigl. Vet. Ah. Handl. Stoclch. xxvii. 

 (1776) 300, t. 7.— ScHOTT et Endl. Jf «&<. 11.— 

 Endl. Gen. n. 714. — Grifp. Trans. Linn. 8oe. 

 xix. 338, t. 38.— Wedd. Ann. Se. Nat. a€v. 3, xiv. 

 173, 1. 10, fig. 34-38.— HoFMEisT. N.Beitr. i. 581, 



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

 43_47._EicHL. Act. Congr. Par. (1867) 138, t. 2, 

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

 Soc. xxii. 37, t. 1 C— Teatt. Arck i. 89 ; Thes. 

 90.— Hakt. Gen. S.-Afr. PL 300.— Hakv. and 

 SoND. PI. Clip. i\. 574. — lohthyosma Wehdtmanni 

 ScHLCHTL, Linncea, ii. 671, t. 8 ; iii. 194. 



' The pollen grains are globular, smooth, and 

 have three pores. 



•* Harv. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Eist. i. ser. ii. 

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

 Suppl. i. n. 717^- Gripp. Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. 

 336.— Hook. r. Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 31,t. IB. 

 — EiOHL. Act. Congr. Par. (1867) t. 1, fig. 10 ; 

 Prodr. 124. — BlepharoehlamysP-BCESL. Epim. 246. 

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

 ScHOTT and Endl.). 



° Pollen subcubical, tubercular. 



