204 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VOL XXXV. 
plants which contain chlorophyll, and are yellowish or brown- 
ish green. Tropical species of Loranthus produce magnificent 
flowers 10-20 cm. in diameter and display most gorgeous 
orange and purple colors. The flowers of the Santalacez, 
sandalwood family, are perfect, the calyx is greenish-white 
or purplish, and at least one species in Europe has been seen 
to be visited by the honey-bee. 
The colors of the Balanophoracee, a tropical family parasitic 
on the roots of forest trees, which belongs also to this order, 
are of much interest. The plants, of which there are about 
forty species, resemble fungi, such as toadstools, producing 
flowers. They were, according to Kerner, made the subject 
of many fanciful speculations by the nature-philosophers, by 
whom they were considered as “in the position of a hiero- 
glyphic key between two worlds." The entire plant of the 
American genus Langsdorffia is pale yellowish or, in the case 
of the scales, waxen yellow, orange, or red. The genus Bala- 
nophora occurs in the eastern hemisphere and is vividly 
colored a deep yellow, red, or purple. In Helosis the floral 
spadix is purple or blood-red ; in Corynea turdici, which lives 
on the roots of Peruvian-bark trees, the purple spadix is sup- 
ported by a white shaft. The coloring of the inflorescence of 
Lophophytum leandri * cannot be exceeded," says Kerner, “ in 
variety, its rachis being pale reddish-violet, the bract scales 
gamboge, the ovary yellowish, the styles red, and the ovaries 
white." The entire plant of Sarcophyte sanguinea from the 
Cape of Good Hope presents a most striking appearance, 
owing to the blood-red coloring of all its parts. 
'The flowers of the Aristolochiaceze, or birthroot family, are 
adapted to Diptera, especially to small gnats. The calyx is 
highly specialized and in Aristolochia, familiar in A. sipho, 
Dutchman's pipe of cultivation, is prolonged into a tube with 
a contracted throat, either straight or shaped like the letter .5, 
which is set on the inside with reflexed hairs. Flies can creep 
inside easily, but when they attempt to escape they are pre- 
vented by the hairs, which form an impassable grating. As soon 
as the anthers have dehisced, the hairs wither, the calyx shrivels, 
and the imprisoned insects are set free. The mechanism 
