AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 165 
selves for description. It has been already 
mentioned that plants which grow upon others 
without any attachment to the soil, but chiefly 
deriving their sustenance from the atmosphere, 
as in the case of many of the tropical Orchids, 
are called Epipuytes. These plants, when 
they grow upon the surface of trees, probably 
feed upon some of the decaying portions of the 
bark, but not upon the trees themselves; they 
are virtually azv-plants. Those plants, on the 
other hand, which are called Parasites, as 
deriving their food from others, actually prey 
upon the plant to which they are attached. 
Not only are Fungi and many other Crypto- 
gamic plants parasitic, but a certain number 
also of flowering plants are to be classed 
among these “ vegetable thieves,’ as they have 
been termed. There are two kinds of them; 
first, those plants which are of a brownish 
colour, and have scales instead of leaves; and 
secondly, those which are of a green colour, 
and produce leaves. To the former belong, in 
our Flora, Orobanche, Broom-rape; Lathrea, 
Tooth Wort; and Cuscuta, Dodder. Vescum, 
the Mistletoe, is an example of the second kind ; 
also Thestum. LEuphrasiaand Melampyrum are 
