AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 167 
The Broom-rapes feed upon Broom, Furze, 
Hazel, Thyme, Ivy, Clover, and several species 
of them upon other selected plants. They have 
no green colour, but are simply stems bearing 
spikes of flowers of dull colour, combining 
dingy purple, pale yellow, and brown, mingled 
indistinctly, and at length changing to a 
rusty brown... The flowers are didynamous, 
Linn., Cl. XIV. The seeds of such parasites 
seem to lie in the ground until they come into 
contact with the plant on which they feed, and 
then begin to vegetate. Very many of them 
occur among the clover, where they feed 
luxuriously ; whoever gathers one of the larger 
spikes will observe how considerable a plant. 1s 
being supported in this way so injurious to the 
proper crop. The farmer’s remedy would be 
to weed them out before they ripen their seed ; 
indeed, as soon as they can be plucked. 
The Orobanchacez include also the Tooth- 
wort, Lathrea Sguamaria, a very curious 
specimen, parasitic upon Hazel, resembling a 
spike of several rows of large yellowish-white 
teeth affixed to a stem of the same colour. 
Once only, many years ago, in Cheshire, the 
writer gathered it, made a drawing of it in 
