836 OROBANCHE. [CLASS XiV. ORDEa ii. 



crowned by the persistent style. Seeds very numerous, small, dark 

 brown, attached to the lateral jo/acew^as. 



Habitat. — On the roots of Broom, Furze, and other leguminous 

 plants; frequent. 



Perennial; flowering in June and July. 



Broom-rape is so called by our old herbalists from the belief that 

 by attaching itself to the roots of Broom it robbed it of its nutri- 

 ment, a name significant enough ; but the O. major not only grows 

 upon the Broom, but is found equally common on other of the legu- 

 minous tribe in Flanders. We are told it is as common on the roots 

 of clover, which it so injures as to deter the farmers from cultivating it 

 as a fodder. Its parasitical growth and destructive habit to other 

 plants was well known to the ancients, and they called it the Wolf, 

 because they said it destroyed all plants that grew near it ; and 

 Matthiola says, in some places it was called The Lion's Tail, from its 

 peculiar shape. 



2. O. caryophylla'cea, Sni. (Fig. 967.) Clove scented Broom-rape. 

 Stem simple, angular; sepals many ribbed, united in front half as long 

 as the corolla ; tube of the corolla inflated, especially above, the limb 

 spreading, the upper lip waved, crenated and notched, the lower of 

 three nearly equal crenated lobes, obtuse; stamens inserted above the 

 base of thecorolla; the filaments and style with glandulose pubescence; 

 stigma two lobed, dark purple. 



English Botany, t. 2639.— Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 

 241.— Lindley, Synopsis, Suppl. p. 328.— O. Galii. Duby. Bot. Gall. 

 vol. i. p. 349. 



Hoot fibrous. Stem erect, from one to two feet high or more, 

 simple, angularly striated and furrowed, of a pale dirty yellow, tinged 

 with purple, and soon becoming a dark purplish brown, swollen into a 

 fleshy tuberous base, clothed as is the whole plant with short soft glan- 

 dular pubescence, and bearing a few taper-pointed lanceolate scales^ 

 many ribbed, more numerous and acute towards the base, soon becom- 

 ing vvithered, and of a daik brown colour. Inflorescence a terminal 

 spike of numerous flowers, distant below, crowded above. Bracteas 

 lanceolate, taper-pointed, mostly woolly on the outside. Calyx sepals 

 mostly united in front, and cleft into two or four awl-shaped lobes, 

 four or many ribbed, downy. Corolla bell-shaped, pale dirty purple, 

 downy, the tube striated with dark ribs, the limb spreading, upper lip 

 somewhat concave, crisped on the margin, and mostly notched, the 

 lower lip of three nearly equal ovate acute spreading lobes, unequally 

 crenated on the margins, all striated with dark purple veins. Stamens 

 inserted above the base of the corolla. Filaments awl-shaped, clothed 

 with glandular pubescence, especially on the inner side at the base. 

 Anthers of two oblong cells, pointed at the base, downy on the margin. 

 Style pubescent above. Stigma of two globose lobes, dark purple, the 



