Balania Harlandii (Hook. F.) V.T., of the H.K. Region & Its Relatives.
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Balanophoreæ," members of that interesting family of pale root parasites fairly nearly related to the members of the Loranthaceæ, or family of the green or pale stem parasitic mistletoes. His account, together with his abundant and most excellent illustrations, was printed and reproduced in the twenty-second volume of the Transactions of the Society (in 1856). At the meeting of June 16, 1859, Dr. Hooker read accounts and gave pictures of three additional plants of the same type, one of which was collected on Hong Kong Island. This paper was also published in the twenty-second volume of the Linnean Transactions, where the Hong Kong species was christened Balanophora Harlandii Hook. f., in honour of one of its discoverers, Dr. W. A. Harland, at one time Government Surgeon at Hong Kong and who carried to the Kew Botanic Gardens, in 1857, an extensive and interesting collection of Hong Kong plants. Two sets of specimens were studied by Dr. Hooker, one collected by Dr. Harland in forests, somewhere on Hong Kong Island, the other collected by Mr. C. Wilford in December, 1858, in a deep valley on Mount Gough. George Bentham in his
Flora Hong- kongensis" (1861, p. 140) quotes only the collections mentioned by Hooker. Dunn and Tutcher in their Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong (1912) noted Mt. Gough," Mt. Nicholson," and Taitum Tuk," as to localities, all on Hong Kong Island.
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Since it had been my good fortune to come into acquaintance with two very different members of this group, Balanophora pullens (Sol.) Setchell and B. Wilderi Setchell, from Tahiti and Rarotonga respectively, the eastern- most representatives of the family (as limited by Van Tieghem in 1906) but belonging to the genus (or subgenus) Polyplethia V.T., it seemed very de- sirable to reinvestigate the members of Balania, V.T., to which Balanophora Harlandii belongs, especially since the interest and energetic activities of Dr. G. A. C. Herklots in the Hong Kong area gave promise of effective co- operation.
In response to a letter of inquiry, Dr. Herklots replied promptly that the request might have to do with a peculiar parasite obtained some months before, the specimens of which were still before him, having dried up before developing farther as had been desired. The specimens were forwarded and proved to be typical plants of the Balanophora Harlandii Hook. f. (or Balania Harlandii (Hook. f.) V.T.). They were young specimens, repre- senting both sexes, collected on Mount Nicholson in November, 1930. (One of Hooker's specimens was collected on Mount Gough in December). Dr. Derklots offered to keep watch of various suitable localities and obtain, if possible, more adequate supplies. The attempt was gratifyingly successful and the specimens obtained have recently been forwarded. They prove to be of the greatest service for the study of the variation in morphology of the Balania species and of their distribution. They were collected in October and November of the year 1931. The localities represented are Victoria Peak, High West, Wong Nei Chung on Hong Kong Island, and Tai Mo Shan (Big Cloud Mt.) and Ma On Shan (Saddle Mt) on the mainland.
The several collections show very considerable differences in height, slenderness, or the reverse, variation in shape of the capitula, particularly
Supplement No. 1, 1934.
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