CLASS XIV. ORDER II. 1 LATHRJEA. 841 



Habitat— Moist rich lands, growing on the roots of hemp, chiefly 

 in Norfolk and Suffolk. 



Annual ; flowering in August and September. 



This is readily distinguished by its branched waved stem and its 

 pale purplish corolla. The seeds are minute, but extremely beautiful 

 when examined by a magnifying power. Neither this nor any other of 

 our species are now applied to any use, nor are they thought to possess 

 any particular medicinal properties, though formerly they were used 

 as astringents internally, and applied to ulcers ; in Virginia the 

 powdered stem of O. Virginiana is frequently used for inveterate 

 ulcers and open cancers, with considerable benefit; and the famous 

 " Martin's Cancer Powder," which is highly esteemed in North 

 America, is said to be the powder of this plant and white arsenic. 

 Formerly it was believed that Orobanches partook of the qualities of 

 the plants on which they grew ; and by others it was supposed that 

 they imparled a deleterious property to the plant to which they 

 attached themselves: but both opinions appear to have been given 

 without sufficient proof as to the truth of either one or the other. It is, 

 nevertheless, extremely curious that these planls should apply the sap 

 of oiher plants so difi"erent to themselves to their own purposes, and 

 on account of this power we find that the Orobanches are not furnished 

 with leaves, as they are not necessary to elaborate the sap as in the 

 generality of planls, but bear scales or abortive leaves. The seeds re- 

 main a considerable lime in the ground, until they meet with the 

 peculiar tribe of plants on which they can attach themselves ; hence 

 the necessity of the abundant quantity of seeds which each plant pro- 

 duces — we have counted 1,100 seeds in a capsule of O. ramosa. On 

 the same plant (one of ordinary size) there were 66 capsules, so that 

 this plant bore the enormous number of 72,600 seeds ! each of vihich 

 is capable of producing a plant, so that the chances of not meeting 

 with the plant of its choice on which to establish itself, is, in a measure, 

 obviated by the number of its seeds, and the chances of their all being 

 destroyed by various causes until it does so are much greater. It is 

 one of the many examples of the adaptation of the means used by the 

 all-wise Creator for the accomplishment of His purpose in the economy 

 and propagation of the plant, to maintain the link unbroken in the 

 chain of creation. 



GENUS XXII. LATHR^'A.— Linn. Tooihwort. 



Nat. Ord. Oroban'che^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx campanulate. Corolla tubular, two lipped, 

 Germen with a depressed gland at the base. Stigma notched. 

 Capsule one celled, two valved, many seeded, placentas spongy in 



