CLASS XIV. ORDEE II.] OROBANCHE. 835 



ORDER II. 



ANGIOSPER'MIA. (Fruit a Capsule, containing one 

 OR MORE Seeds.) 



GENUS XXI. ORO'BANCHE Linn. Broom-rape. 



Nat. Ord. Oroban'che^. Rich, 



Gen. Char. Calyx four-cleft, or of two pieces, often bifid. Corolla 

 ringent, four or five-cleft, fleshy and glandular in the lower part. 

 Stigma capitate. Capsule one celled, two valved, many seeded, 

 placentas lateral, opposite. — Name from o^o^og, pulse or vetches ; 

 and ayxEiv, to strangle ; in allusion to the habit of mostly 

 attaching itself to the roots of leguminous plants, and thus 

 injuring their growth. 



* Calyx of two pieces^ bracteas of one. 

 1. O. ma^jor, Linn. (Fig. 966.) Greater Broom-rape. Stem simple, 

 angular ; sepals many ribbed, rough, bifid, or entire; corolla tubular, 

 inflated upwards, hairy, upper lip concave, entire or notched, the lower 

 three lobed, the middle one largest, ovate, acute ; stamens inserted into 

 the base of the corolla, smooth ; anthers yellow ; style with glandular 

 pubescence ; stigma two lobed, yellow. 



English Botany, t. 421. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 147. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 241. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 193. ~ 

 O. Rapum, Thuill. 



Roots simple or branched fibres, from the fleshy tuberous base of the 

 stem. Stem simple, erect, one to nearly two feet high, hollow, 

 unequally angular and striated, of a dusky yellow colour, scattered 

 over with sessile lanceolate scales, smaller, and more abundant at the 

 base, more or less clothed with short glandular pubescence, which gives 

 the plant an unctuous feel, hiflorescence a terminal spike of numerous 

 flowers, more or less crowded. Bracteas lanceolate, the upper ones 

 with a long narrow point, longer than the corolla. Calyx of two 

 pieces, mostly cleft half way down into lanceolate points, numerously 

 ribbed, and like the bractea rough with pubescence. Corolla tubular, 

 ribbed and hairy on the back, the throat somewhat inflated, the upper 

 lip concave, entire, crenated or notched, the lower three lobed, the 

 lateral ones ovate, the middle one largest, roundish ovate, acute. 

 Stamens inserted into the base of the corolla, ihe filaments dilated and 

 smooth at the base, scattered with glandular hairs above. Anthers 

 yellow, becoming white. Style slender and downy, with glandular 

 hairs. Stigma of two yellow separate globules. Capsule ovate, 



