212 THE TOOTHWOBT FAMILY. 



LX.— THE TOOTHWORT FAMILY. OrolanchdcecB. 



In the Orohanchacece. we have another family of parasites, in general 

 habit and mode of growth resembling the Monotropa (p. 163), but in 

 their flowers and fruit approaching more nearly 

 to the foxglove and its allies. Like the Mono- 

 tropa, they are leafless and cadaverous : their 

 stems, which rise to the height of six or eight 

 inches or more, being of a white or brownish 

 hue, passing into purple or yellowish, and 

 clothed with scaly bracts instead of leavei. 

 The flowers in all the native species are of the 

 same peculiar dingy hue as the stems, and borne 

 in terminal spikes ; the corolla is tetramerous, 

 irregular, and tubular ; the stamens are four, 

 and didynamous : the ovary is solitary, two- 

 celled, and many-seeded. The principal seats 

 of growth selected by these singular plants are 

 the roots of trees and shrubs, such as ivy, hazle, 

 furze, broom, and black poplar ; but a few prefer 

 herbaceous plants, as clover, the wild carrot, 

 hemp, knapweed, and yarrow ; some appearing 

 to thrive only on a single 

 kind of plant, or at most 

 only upon two or three 

 closely allied ones, while 

 others will grow upon a 

 variety of plants, and such 

 as possess no immediate 

 aflBnity. How far the con- Fig- 135. 



figuration and colour of the TootJiwort. 



parasite are affected by the peculiar sap of the plant on which it feeds, 

 is not yet ascertained. There is reason to believe that the influence 

 of the stolen nourishment is considerable, and that the number of 

 species appears in consequence very much larger than it actually is. 

 Almost all parts of the northern hemisphere are acquainted with them, 

 and a few are found at the Cape of Good Hope. 



Eight grow wild in England, two occurring near Manchester. 



