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seeds usually germinating in earth, sprouting and penetrating the 
bark from birth. 
Passing from the chlorophyllous to the aphyllous parasites, I 
can vouch for the germination of seeds of Aphyllon fasciculatum 
directly on the stems of Geraniums when planted as cuttings be- 
neath the soil; and carefully washing out the earth from Aster 
corymbosus in a.locality where A. uniflorum is abundant, have 
seen the young plants starting from its fibres. Lpzphegus I 
have also found in the earlier stages of growth attached to beech 
roots. On the other hand plants, which are scarcely parasites, 
have seed sprouting on bark to which the plant subsequently be- 
comes attached. It is not always the decaying bark which re- 
ceives the sprouting seed of the epiphyte. TZz//andsta usneoides 
sprouts on the clear, glossy green bark of the orange tree. This 
may also be a partial parasite, though no direct penetration of 
the parts has been discovered. Dr. Chalkley Palmer analyzed the 
ashes, finding silica, iron, alumina, manganese, lime, magnesia, 
potash, soda, sulphur, chlorine, carbon and phosphorus. It is 
inconceivable that the Spanish moss should derive all these from 
the atmosphere. 
I am convinced that a large number of root parasites require 
nothing but the ordinary earth to sprout their seeds in, and that 
many will live through their whole individual existence with 
nothing more in the soil than ordinary soil affords. My com- 
panion, in 1873, in Rocky Mountain exploration, Mr. Josiah-— 
Hoopes, found Castzl/eia seeds that grow as do any ordinary 
seed ; and Mr. Isaac C. Martindale has recorded in the Botanical 
Gazette and Mr. Brown in the BULLETIN OF THE TORREY CLUB 
that Orobanche will germinate in ordinary garden earth, and go on 
with its development through all its stages as a well behaved mem- 
ber of the vegetable kingdom ought to do. I have shown ina recent 
issue of the Botanical Gazette that Sarcodes sanguinea has the 
same character. I have found Monotropa in soil with the slightest 
modicum of vegetable matter as often as actually among decay- 
ing leaves. Mrs. Harker, of Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1888, 
found Cuscuta germinating in the earth, which after finding some- 
thing to fasten its fangs into, by the twisting of its stem, drew its 
roots out of the ground to die. It would be interesting to watch 
