CCCLXVIII. Decades Kewensis. Plantarum Novarum in Herbario Horti Regii Conservatorum. Decas VIII.
Author
Hemsley
text
Bulletin of miscellaneous information
1894
1894
99
102
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.44762
4F794397-C4F3-4D57-9B2D-DE75FDDE035E
80
.
Balanophora hookeriana
, Hemsl
. [
Balanophorae
];
planta minima ♀
gracilis
, caule paucisquamosa, squamis latis amplexicaulibus rotundatis superioribus quam internodiis brevioribus, spica brvis breviter pedunculata, floribus bene evolutis non visis sessilibus cum bracteis clavatis intermixtis.
Habitat. -
Myrung
,
Khasia mountains,
J.D. Hooker
and
T. Thomson
,
1850
.
Planta circiter 1 1/4 poll. alta. Squamae mximae sesquilineam longae. Spica ♀ vix sesquilineam longa.
The history of this miniature
Balanophora
is very curious. Last year, when transferring some spirit-specimens of
Cordyceps
to the Herbarium, Mr. Massee found the plant in question, which he soon ascertained was not a fungus; yet, on comparing it with Berkeley's original drawing of
Cordyceps racemosa
, publihsed at the same time as
C. falcata
in Hooker's Kew Journal of Botany, vi. p. 212, t. 8, fig 3, it appeared to be the organism from which a part of at least of the drawing was made. The original drawing shows the scales on the stem, but the published figure does not, and strange to say Berkeley concludes this description of
Cordyceps racemosa
with the remark that it might easily be passed over as an imperfect
Balanophora
. It would appear that he fell into an inexplicable blunder, for there is nothing else to represent
Cordyceps
.