Orobanche Virginiana. 29 
mosses. This corolla, which is represented by the beak-like pro- 
cess in (Fig. 5.) is extremely deciduous, owing to the increase in 
the size of the germs, which is very rapid, as well as to their oblique 
form. The later and infertile flowers, which are numerous, and 
situated towards the tops or extremities of the branches, are about 
half an inch long, arcuate, tubular, compressed, and bilabiate: the 
upper lip is somewhat notched, the lower three-toothed; their ca- 
lices are like those of the primary or fertile flowers, but their co- 
-rollas are of a cream-white, delicately striped with rose-red, and 
have, on close inspection, a very beautiful appearance. ‘The pale 
yellow specimens are generally destitute of these long tubular 
flowers. The stamens are four in number, rarely exserted, but 
have no attachment to the corolla; they are furnished with smooth 
filaments, crowned with small globose pubescent anthers. The 
style is simple and smooth. The capsule which opens only on one 
side, contains an immense number of very minute, ovate, yellowish- 
white seeds, resembling coarse meal. 
It has been already said, that this is a parasitic plant, and it is 
chiefly, if not always found growing on the roots of the Beech, 
(Fagus sylvatica, and F. feruginea.) Hence the common name 
Beech-drops, from the vulgar notion, that as the plant is found under 
the shade of those trees, it is produced by some kind of seed 
faliing from them. The vulgar name cancer-root, may have had its 
origin in the cancerous like structure, if 1 may so speak, of the root; 
