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THE AMEBIC I A" XA 1TRAL1ST [Vol. XLII 



the radicle of a normal embryo. If this assumption is 

 correct it follows that the plant is destitute of normal epi- 

 tropism and that the force with which the offshoot of the 

 embryo pierces the bark and growing wood of the host is 

 an abnormal and violent form of epitropism. It is also 

 assumed that because the embryo of Rafflesia has no 

 plumule the flower does not represent primary apotropism 

 for the plant, but abnormal secondary apotropism as does 

 that of the broom-rapes. The remarkable plants which 

 constitute group VI are divided into many well-defined 

 species and a considerable number of genera. Some of 

 them bear the largest flowers that are known among 

 plants, the largest being more than three feet in diameter, 

 but some are very small. All are natives of warm cli- 

 mates, mostly of Asia, Africa and the adjacent islands. 

 A few American species are known, all of them small. 

 One very small species which is found in Texas and 

 Mexico is sessile in great numbers upon a papilionaceous 

 shrub, and is hardly more than one eighth of an inch in 

 diameter when in full bloom. 



Group VII 



Group VII consists of a remarkable and varied series of 

 tropical and subtropical phenogamous parasites known as 

 the Balanophoreae. Some of them have large and showy 

 flowers, and some of them have so great resemblance to 

 fungi that the older botanists regarded them as such. All 

 of them are parasitic upon roots of woody hosts, beneath 

 soil which is usually rich in vegetable mold. The seeds 



