LXXXIX. BALANOPHORA CEiE 
443 
BALANOPHORA. From the Greek balanos, an acorn, and 
pherein, to bear ; referring to the shape of the heads of flowers. — 
E. Asia, Australia. 
Balanophora involucrata, HooJc. f . ; FI. Br. Ind. v. 237. A 
glabrous, fleshy, fungus-like herb parasitic on the roots of trees ; 
stems erect, 1-6 in., the base sheathed in the tuberous rootstock 
and bearing about the middle an involucre of 2-4 partially united 
scales. Flowers minute, 1 -sexual, crowded in an ovoid or globose, 
red or yellow head about 1 in. long. Female heads sometimes 
bear a few male flowers at their base or their summit ; more rarely 
the male heads contain also a few imperfect female flowers. Male 
flowers : perianth half sunk in the rachis, limb usually 3-parted ; 
stamens usually 3, filaments very short, united, anthers oblong, 
opening by a slit along the top. Female flowers often clustered 
round a club-shaped bracteole : perianth none ; ovary ovoid, 
shortly stalked, produced upwards in a slender style ; stigma 
terminal, ovule 1. Nut minute, hard, one-seeded. 
Near Kotgurh in forest, 6000 ft. — July, August. — Temperate Himalaya, 6000- 
10,000 ft. 
This curious plant grows in shady forests, and was collected by Dr. T. 
Thomson on August 6, 1847, when on the march from Narkunda to Kotgurh, 
apparently near where the road crosses a stream before commencing the ascent 
to Kotgurh, see his Western Himalaya and Thibet, p. 47. The species is 
common in the moist forests near Darjeeling, but has not, to my knowledge, 
been again collected so far west. 
XC. EUPHORBIACEiE 
Trees, shrubs or herbs, often with acrid, milky juice. Leaves 
usually alternate and entire. Inflorescence of various forms, usu- 
ally axillary. Flowers small, often minute, always 1 -sexual. In 
Euphorbia the male and female flowers are within the same in- 
volucre, and thus have the appearance of being a single flower ; 
in the other genera the flowers are distinct. Perianth in Euphorbia 
none, in the other genera the calyx is usually 3-5-parted. Corolla 
rarely present. Disk of varied form, sometimes absent. Stamens 1 
in Euphorbia, in the other genera 2-5 or many ; anthers 2-celled. 
Ovary free, usually 3-celled, 1 or 2 ovules in each cell ; styles 
usually 3, often branched. A rudimentary pistil is sometimes 
present in the male flowers. Fruit a capsule, usually containing 3 
small, 1- or 2-seeded nuts or cocci separating from a persistent axis, 
or a drupe containing 1-3 stones. — A very large Order, abundant 
and widely distributed in tropical regions, much rarer in cold 
climates. 
The Castor Oil plant, Bicinus communis, is cultivated throughout India, and 
is common on waste ground in the hills. It has peltate, palmately 8-10-lobed 
