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organs ; and it would in my mind be no argument against the importance of this 
circumstance, to say that they have no existence in certain Endogens, as 
Lemna, for instance ; for in that and similar cases the small degree in which 
such plants are developed, may be considered to account for the absence of 
spiral vessels ; just as in a common Exogen, the spiral system does not make 
its appearance until the general development of the indi\ddual has made some 
progress. 
So, indeed, in Ferns and other Acrogens of high degree, w’e have no right 
to say that the vascular system is absent ; on the contrary, in the centre of 
the stem of Lycopodiaceae, and in the soft parts of that of Ferns, either spiral 
or scalariform vessels exist in abundance ; but they never make their appearance 
in the foliaceous organs as in more perfect plants. 
There is an excellent account of Rhizanths by Endlicher in his Meletemata, 
from which, as it contains a summary of all that was in 1832 known concerning 
them, I extract the following matter ; not, however, literally, but in a more 
condensed form than the original. For further information the reader is re- 
ferred to the Meletemata, Blume’s Flora Java, Martins’ Nova Genera, 8^c. vol. 
3., Brown’s Observations on Raffiesia in the \Zth volume of the Linnean Society' s 
Transactions ; and the various works quoted at the head of the following na- 
tural orders. 
Rhizanths all agree in being of a fungus-like consistence, and in their ha- 
bits of living parasitically on the roots of other plants. Tlieir forms are, how- 
ever, exceedingly diversified ; some have the aspect of a pileate Fungus (a 
Mushroom), or develope a head like that of a Bullrush (Typha) : others push 
forth a thyrse of flowers, or an elegant panicle ; while others have their bloom 
in a head like that of some cynarocephalous plant. In Helosis and Langs- 
dorffia the rhizoma, which is horizontal and branched, and which at inteiwals 
throws up pei*pendicular flowering stalks, is very much analogous to the spawn 
of Fungi. In C\Tiomorium, Scybalium and Balanophora this part is wanting, 
and in its room the roots of those genera emit roundish deforaied tubers col- 
lected in a circle round the roots of other plants, and rooting into them by 
some unknown process. Blume says, “that at the period of germination 
of Balanophorese there is produced from the roots of the Fig on which they 
grow, an intermediate body of a fleshy nature, and intimately combined with 
its superficial woody layers, and that this intermediate body is penetrated by 
their spiral vessels which render it woody.” He, moreover adds, that “ se- 
veral seeds of Balanophorese germinate on nearly the same points of the Fig- 
root, hence this woody body or luxuriant product of the juices that are sucked 
out, has generally an irregular form, and the plants proceeding from such 
tubers grow out in difterent directions, much in the same manner as the tubers 
of a Potatoe generate their ofi^sets, with this difference, however, that in a Po- 
tatoe the eves of the plant are in the circumference, while in Balanophora they 
are placed in the centre, and on that account the intermediate body where the 
offsets break out, has necessarily a conical extension.” Something of the same 
kind occurs in Scybalium, whose tubers are expanded in an irregular form 
about the root of some unknown tree, are fleshy, and composed even in the 
substance of the stalk of somewhat irregular cells and no spiral vessels. In 
the room of leaves these plants have scales, which chiefly differ from true leaves 
in the want of colour, a character so common to those and all other plants pa- 
rasitical on i-oots. A vertical stalk (stipes) sometimes teiminated by a soli- 
tarv head of flowers, sometimes bearing several heads variously arranged upon 
the* stalk, is common to all the genera of Balanophorese ; which moreover agree 
in this, that the flower-heads wmich at first are sessile on the rhizoma, and con- 
cealed bv manv rows of imbricated scales, resemble the leafy rosette of a Sem- 
pervivum without colour, or rather the very small bud of a Rafflesia. The ge- 
