BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 155 



are scattered, and having faithfully performed its allotted portion 

 of duty, it quietly retires to rest. 



The plant lives but a short time, perhaps not more than a 

 month passing between germination and maturity. During this 

 short time we must complete our investigations or remain as before* 

 in darkness as to how it came, how it grew and where it obtained 

 its nourishment. 



It has no true roots and does not contain chlorophyll, it there- 

 fore must be either parasite or saprophyte. It cannot live where" 

 there are no assimilating plants, this would indicate it being a 

 parasite, which indeed it is, but a curious one. Having apparently 

 no haustoria, the question arises, how then does it live? We know 

 that this is a parasite. We know also that it lives extracting, or 

 shall we say receiving nourishment from the beech, and from that 

 alone. Sever its connection with the beech, that is, cut the beech 

 root, on which it grows, carefullv as you please, without disturbing 

 the plant itself in the least, it will die; but dig it up, break off all 

 its root-like appendages, but do not cut off the beech root, plant it 

 again and it will live, grow, and ripen its seed. We say it is a par- 

 asite on the beech. How? We shall see. Here is a small plant 

 not more tban two inches high, less than one-fifth of the full size, 

 growing among some half decayed leaves, or as frequently in soil 

 where there is little or no vegetation but itself and the beech; we 

 dig it up, carefully divest it of its coating of dirt, and we have 

 something like Fig. 1, the lower part of the plant swelled out into 

 a sort of bulb, and from this bulb protruding in all directions a 

 number of ramifications, in appearance, not unlike the horns of a 

 deer, which for want of a better name we will call grapplers; these 

 might be mistaken for roots but they are not, their use being to 

 hofd the plant firmly in the ground: this is probably all Ave will 

 see, the beech-root haying been broken off. To show that this is 

 true, we cut several vertical slices from the bottom of the bulb, and 

 place them under the microscope, somewhere on one of them will 

 be seen (Fig. 2) a cluster of large cells, surrounded by a band of 

 tissue, much finer, and of two different kinds, in which we find a 

 cell formation closely resembling that of the beech, and not to be 

 found in the upper parts of the parasite. (If the plant possess 

 anything analogous to haustoria, it will probably be found in con- 

 nection with the inner part of this band.) 



We now select a larger plant,and find it attached to a larger root, 

 perhaps a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, or more. The parasite 

 has a tight hold with its grapplers, bending them over the root as 

 if to hold it in position, this, however,being not always the ease. We 

 break the grapplers away, and find the bulb adhering to the side ot 

 the root as if glued; a thin slice and a microscope shows (Iig. 3) 

 the beech root at B, and a portion of the parasite, C, looking very 

 much as though the beech had reversed the order ot things, and 

 had grown into the parasite. Bat now we go further, and in the 



