700 
BOTANY. 
presents the rhizome of Balanophora. In the male flowers 
reduced to a solitary stamen, it agrees with Loplwphytum 
and Thonningia, arid in the subulate perianth-lobes of the 
female flower with Gynomorium . Upon the whole it may 
perhaps rank nearest to Thonningia , with which it agrees in 
habit, in some points of structure of the female flower, 
especially in the tube of the perianth being connate with 
the style above the ovary, in the absence of imperfect flowers 
amongst the females, of bracts, and of a perianth to the male 
flower. 
“ The natives of New Zealand call this plant f Flower of 
Hades/ because it grows almost buried in the soil ; they 
further consider it allied to Freycinetia , which it strikingly 
resembles in the inflorescence. 
“ Mr. Taylor informs me that he has heard vaguely of the 
existence of another species with blue flowers in the forests 
of Mount Egmont.” * 
Marattia Flegans. — This rare and beautiful fern is not 
found south of New Plymouth, its habitat is the dense forest, 
and is generally met with on dry declivities. The stem of 
the plant rises from four to eight inches from the ground, 
and is composed of about a dozen brown scales, not unlike 
the Brazilian nut in shape, but three times as large, at- 
tached like the scales of the white lily ; the leaves are 
from five to ten feet long, remarkably slender, and of a dark 
glossy green : when these scales are roasted, and the outer 
rind scraped off, the farinaceous substance within has a 
pinkish hue. In one of my journeys up the Waitara, my 
natives espied a bed of these plants, they all rushed forward 
and had a regular scramble for them, wondering what was 
the cause of the excitement, I also ran and obtained a share ; 
they were soon stripped, a fire made, and the scales roasted, 
they were sweet and mealy, and pronounced excellent ; if 
this fern could be raised in any quantity by cultivation it 
would be valuable as a delicate article of food : it is a con- 
* Explanation of the Plate. 
Fig. I, spike, nat. size. Figs. 2 and 3, stamens. Fig. 4, pollen : — all mag- 
nified. Fig 5, spike, nat. size. Figs 6, 7. & 8, flowers, magnified. 
