Parasitical Plants. — The Balanophoracece. 353 



warts. The whole mass appears highly charged with wax. 

 Wallich says that it is sold in the Burmese bazaars for medi- 

 cinal purposes. 



B. fungosa, Forst., is peculiar, as being the only Australian 

 species. The following description of the arrangement of the 

 tissues in this species is so clear that we cannot do better than 

 quote it entire : — " The most curious point in this species is 

 the tendency of the tissues forming each vascular bundle in 

 the rhizome to arrange themselves rudely into the form of an 

 exogenous stem, the wood forming 1 a zone of wedges round a 

 central pith, enclosed by a cellular zone that communicates 

 with the pith by broad medullary rays. The total absence of 

 pith in the root, with whose wood these bundles communicate, 

 would thus seem to indicate that the wood of the rhizome 

 belongs to itself, though it has all the appearance of being 

 solely produced by the root; the root, in short, supplies 

 the nutriment from its own vascular tissue, but the parasite 

 organizes it." 



The several species <3f BalanojphorcB are found on the roots 

 of such trees as oaks, maples, vines, etc., but B. involucrata 

 has also been found growing on the exposed aerial rootlets of 

 oaks in damp or humid forests. This species, when growing 

 upon subterranean roots, appears to affect them much more 

 than any other, as it produces large knots from two to four 

 inches in diameter. These are much prized by the natives, 

 who make from them very neat wooden cups, which are in 

 general use throughout the Himalaya and Thibet. Some of 

 them are esteemed antidotes for poison, and for this purpose 

 fetch a high price. This and the Java species, B. elongata, 

 which furnishes a wax from which candles are made, are the 

 only species of any importance in an economic point of view. 

 In Lopliopliylum Weddellii, Hf., the root-stock is a somewhat 

 spherical fleshy mass, covered on the upper part with long 

 overlapping scales. From the top of this mass springs the 

 flower-stalk, very much in the form of a pine cone, and covered 

 likewise with imbricated scales. On the upper portion of this 

 stalk small regular branches are given off, upon which the 

 flowers are closely packed. A better idea of this singular 

 plant will be obtained from Fig. 6 of the plate. It is a native 

 of New Grenada, in moist woods. It is said to be used by the 

 natives as an article of food. Two other species have been 

 described, viz. : — L. mirabile, Schott and Endl., and L. Boli- 

 vianum, Wedd. Both of these are South American, the first 

 being found in Brazil, the other in Bolivia. 



Ombrojpliytum Pernvianum, Pceppig and Endl., is another of 

 those peculiar plants which Pceppig has described as being 

 eaten by the Peruvians, who boil it, and treat it similar 

 vol. x. — no. v. A A 



