FLOOR.] 
SECOND BOTANICAL ROOM. 
207 
perforating or penetrating the wood of the Lime along the course of 
the medullary rays. Specimens of another species of Viscum from 
Brazil, showing the mode of attachment, will be seen at the bottom 
of the Case on the left hand- wall. The singular productions called 
" Wooden Roses," so common in Mexico and Guatemala, of which 
there are also examples on the Walls of this Case, are produced by 
the decay of various soft-wooded species of Loranthus, a very large 
parasitic genus, of which one species is European, a specimen of 
which is exhibited. In the " Wooden Rose " the base of the para- 
site spreads out upon the wood of the supporting branch, which be- 
comes hypertrophied from the demands of the parasite for nutriment. 
Some dried specimens of other nearly allied genera occupy the floor 
of the Case, including Arceuthobium Oxycedri of S. Europe, a small 
leafless plant growing on a species of juniper, and examples of the 
remarkable genus Myzodendron of Patagonia, the seeds of which 
possess long feathered processes which curl round the branches of 
other trees, and so retain the seed till germination has occurred and 
the parasite obtained a hold. 
On the three upper shelves are placed a series of specimens of 
plants of the natural order Balanophorace^:. From their want of 
any green colour and of leaves, as well as in their form, they present 
a remarkable outward similarity to Fungi, but they possess true 
flowers, though small and of simple structure. There are about thirty- 
five species known, ranged under sixteen or seventeen genera, of which 
Balanophora, Mystropetahim, Langsdorffia, Phyllocoryne, Lophophytum, 
EJiopalocnemis, Helosis, and Cynomorium are represented here. Most 
are inhabitants of the tropics, but Cynomorium coccineum reaches to 
the islands of Sicily, Malta, Gozo, and Lampedusa, in the Mediterra- 
nean, where it has long been collected for use as a styptic, and sold 
under the name of "Fungus Melitensis," as a remedy for dysentery. 
All these plants are parasitic on the roots of others, usually oaks, 
maples, vines and smaller shrubs, to which they are attached by a tube- 
riform rhizome, often of large size but of slow growth. 
On the shelf nearest the front are placed specimens of Hydnora 
africana, from the Cape of Good Hope, a root-parasite on Euphorbias ; 
Cytinus Hypocistis, which is not uncommon in the Mediterranean 
region, growing at the foot of species of Cistus, and C. Americanus, a 
little known species from tropical America. Both these genera are 
considered to belong to a single natural order, the Cytinacece. Hyd- 
nora possesses a prostrate black angular rhizome, from which arise the 
fleshy large solitary pear-shaped flowers, remarkably like such fungi 
as Geaster or Scleroderma. They are eaten by the natives of S. 
Africa. Cytinus Hypocistis has small yellow flowers in clusters and 
no rhizome. 
On the upper shelf, in the base of the Case, are specimens of 
JRafflesia Arnoldi, a native of Sumatra. This remarkable parasite 
consists merely of a gigantic flower of very simple structure, mea- 
suring often three feet in diameter, which is attached by its base 
