The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . he parasitescells and the unwelcome guest augments in volume, and endeavours forthwith toreproduce and distribute its kind by the formation of fruit and seeds. For thispurpose buds are developed at suitable spots in the reticular body of the parasite,each of which is manifested as a parenchyma of pulvinate appearance, and is BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHORE^, RAFFLESIACE^. 201 termed a floral cushion. The cells in this cushion, however, now group them-selves in a definite way; ducts and vessels are produced, and, at
The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; . he parasitescells and the unwelcome guest augments in volume, and endeavours forthwith toreproduce and distribute its kind by the formation of fruit and seeds. For thispurpose buds are developed at suitable spots in the reticular body of the parasite,each of which is manifested as a parenchyma of pulvinate appearance, and is BROOM-RAPES, BALANOPHORE^, RAFFLESIACE^. 201 termed a floral cushion. The cells in this cushion, however, now group them-selves in a definite way; ducts and vessels are produced, and, at the same time,a differentiation into axis and flowers is exhibited. These members continue theirdevelopment, increase in size, and finally the enlarged bud breaks through thecortex of the host-plant under shelter of which it has been evolved. In the genus Gytinus alone do we find a stem richly furnished with leaves andbearing at the top a flattened symmetrical tuft of flowers (see fig. 42, left-handside) developed from this bud; in the rest of the RafilesiacefB, the bud, which has. Fig. 43.—Rafflesiacese parasitic on trunks and Pilostyles Haussknechtii. 2 Apodanthes Flacourtiana. » pUostyles Caulotreti. emerged from beneath the cortex of the host, is the flower-bud itself. The axissupporting the bud is extremely abbreviated and clothed merely by a few scales,and the flowers are sessile directly upon the root or stem of the host (see fig. 43).In the case of roots creeping upon the ground, the buds always emerge only on theside turned towards the light; on lianes, also, they are only formed on the side moreexposed to light where subsequently the opened flowers are easily accessible toflying insects (see fig. 43^); on upright shrubs and under-shrubs, on the other hand,they burst forth on all sides upon the branches. Branches of this kind bearingubiquitously extruded flowers of a parasite such as Apodanthes Flacourtiana (seefig. 432) look delusively like the Mezereon
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1902
