( 399 ) 



XX. On the Parasitical Connection of Lathreea Squamaria, and the 

 peculiar Structure of its Subterranean Leaves : in a Letter to 

 Robert Brown, Esq., F.R.S. V.P.L.S. By J. E. BoxDman, 

 Esq., F.L.S. 



Read November 3, 1829. 



The study of Vegetable Physiology, comprehending the affini- 

 ties and properties of plants, and the relation they bear to the 

 animal kingdom, constitutes, doubtless, in every point of view, 

 the most important as well as the most delightful branch of 

 botany, and claims for it a rank among the natural sciences, to 

 which it would not be intitled, if confined merely to nomen- 

 clature and system. Though the general laws which govern the 

 structure and oeconomy of vegetables be now tolerably under- 

 stood, there are many deviations from them, which oiFer to the 

 philosophic botanist subjects peculiarly worthy of his study and 

 investigation. Here a vast and almost unexplored field lies before 

 him, where analogy can contribute little assistance, and where his 

 progress must be proportionably slow and unsatisfactory. 



Perhaps the most striking exceptions to the prevailing laws are 

 found in the tribe of parasitic plants, whether they be Phaenoga- 

 mous or Cryptogamous. Having in the course of the last and 

 present season detected some interesting peculiarities in an indi- 

 vidual of the former of these divisions, the Lathreea Squamaria *, 



which 



* It is suspected that we have two British species, or at least varieties of this plant. 



I have in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. 1. p. 105, stated the differences 



VOL. XVI. 3f between 



