RED BARTSIA ork 
Vetchling, Brambles, Bryony, in the hedge, Cow Parsnip, Hedge 
Parsley, Cleavers, Hoary Ragwort, Wild Basil, Stinging Nettle, &c. 
A rather short, shrubby, branched plant, with an erect stem, and 
widely spreading branches, Red Bartsia has often the same sort of 
candelabra habit as Hedge Mustard. ‘The stem is occasionally square, 
roughly hairy. The leaves are long, lance-shaped, distantly coarsely 
toothed, alternately opposite, stalkless, turned back, toothed, and 
veined. The plant is a 
hemi-parasite growing upon 
the roots of grasses. 
The bracts or leaflike 
organs are lance-shaped, 
and exceed the flowers, 
which are purplish-red or 
pink, and borne in a pa- 
nicled spike, which is clus- 
tered, with flowers turned 
all one way and_ nodding. 
The sepals equal the tube, 
4-5 mm. long, and are 4- 
toothed, and acute. The 
corolla is gaping, downy, 
with a hollow oblong lower 
lip, the upper divided into 
3 segments. The capsule is 
flat and oblong, with striate ad Photo, Dr. Somervile Hanags 
white seeds. Rep BartsiA (Bartsiza Odontites, Huds.) 
Red Bartsia is 1 ft. in 
height. The flowers open in July, and continue till September. This 
plant is an annual propagated by seeds. 
The honey is secreted at the base of the smooth ovary, and pro- 
tected from the rain by the 4 adhering anthers, which lie close 
together and are clothed with hairs. Bees insert their probosces 
between the less closely aggregated filaments of the stamens to reach 
the honey, and in so doing they dust themselves with pollen, and 
transfer some of it to the stigma. Two or three purple spots at the 
bottom of the lower lip serve as honey-guides. The stamens all but 
touch below, and are clothed with sharp points inside, but just below 
the anthers they are smooth and further apart. Insects use the 3-lobed 
underlip as a resting place. The stigma projects some distance beyond 
the anthers in open sunny spots, but in shadier spots it hardly does so. 
