PARASITIC PLANTS 215 
of breaking up carbonic acid. Instead we find them 
merely red scales enfolding the stem, if they are large, or 
just indicating where leaves once grew, and hardly notice- 
able with the naked eye. 
The first class, of partial parasites, we noticed in 
Chapter XV., and it included the Yellow-rattle and the 
Eyebright. Their parasitic ways have not long been dis- 
covered, and the extent to which they carry them is still 
doubtful. Moreover, it is very likely that many more of 
our plants, when investigation is carried further, will be 
found not to be above this form of “parish relief,” and at 
any rate it would seem that the giver of the nourishment 
suffers no perceptible harm. On the other hand, there is 
the curious fact that long before the charge was brought, 
the Swiss farmers called the little Eyebright the “ Milk- 
thief,” because, as they said, cows did not do so well on 
pastures where it grew. It will be intensely interesting, 
if records are still kept a thousand years hence, for 
observers to compare the habits of these beginners in 
robbery, and to see whether they have returned to honesty 
altogether, or, as I fear is more likely, whether they have 
given up their own ordinary root work entirely, and simply 
devoted themselves to sucking the life out of grass plants. 
One feels that a first cousin of the Germander Speedwell 
is really bound to return to respectable courses. 
Our only English example of the second class, which 
retains green leaves but has given up roots, is the Mistle- 
toe. Almost every tree is occasionally attacked by it. 
Perhaps the apple is the commonest in England, but in 
Germany the Black Poplar is generally chosen. In early 
spring, when it flowers, it is not very conspicuous, but 
when winter comes its gleaming white berries and its 
“golden bough” mark it out plainly enough. Although 
