274 OROBANCHE^ 



case, and banisli it from your gardens and the use of it also, being a plant so 

 furious and deadly ; for it bringeth such as have eaten thereof into a dead 

 sleepe, wherein many have died." 



The Belladonna has been, in our times, recommended as a preventive 

 against scarlet fever ; and Professor Burnett says, that it does really seem 

 to render persons insusceptible to that disorder. Its power of dilating the 

 pupil of the eye renders this plant very serviceable to the oculist in his 

 delicate operations on that organ, and this Nightshade is often applied 

 externally in painful maladies. No part of the plant possesses any odour 

 indicative of its poisonous nature, though this might be inferred from the 

 lurid hue of its flowers. The juice of the ripe berries gives to paper a 

 beautiful and durable tint of purple ; and a cosmetic made in former days 

 by the Italian ladies from its juices, procured for the plant the name of 

 Belladonna. The Germans probably used it in the extermination of wolves, 

 for they call it JVolfskirsche, wolf's cherry. 



Order LX. OROBANCHE^— BROOM-RAPE TRIBE. 



Calyx variously divided, not falling off ; corolla irregular, usually 2-lipped, 

 imbricated in the bud ; stamens 4, 2 long and 2 short ; anthers often pointed 

 or bearded at the base ; ovary in a fleshy disk, many seeded ; style 1 ; 

 stigma 2-lobed ; capsule 2-valved; seeds very minute, numerous, attached 

 to the valves of the capsule in 2 — 4 rows. This order consists of herbaceous 

 plants, which are parasitic on the roots of other vegetables. They are 

 succulent and leafless, of a dingy red or brown colour, with large flowers of 

 dull brown, yellow or purple, arranged in a spike on the upper part of the 

 stem. 



1. Broom-rape (Orobdnche). — Calyx of two pairs of sepals, sometimes 

 with a small fifth, and often combined in front with 1 — 3 bracts at the base; 

 corolla gaping, 4 — 5-cleft, not falling off. Name from the Greek orohus, a 

 vetch, and agche, to strangle, from the injurious effects produced on the plants 

 to which they attach themselves. 



2. TOOTHWORT {Lathrma). — Calyx bell-shaped, 4-cleft ; corolla gaping, 

 2-lipped, the upper lip arched, entire, not falling oft'. Name from the Greek 

 Laihraios, hid or concealed, becaase the plant often grows among dead leaves. 

 By some authors this genus is included in the order Scrophularinese. 



1. Broom-rape (Orobdnche). 



* Brads one to each flower ; stem simple. 



1. Greater Broom-rape (0. major).— ^tem simple ; corolla inflated at 

 the base in front, curved on the back ; upper lip slightly notched ; lower one 

 in three segments, the middle lobe twice as large as the lateral ones ; stamens 

 inserted near the base of the corolla, smooth below, their upper part and the 

 style downy; pjrennial. The wanderer over the heath-land, who, though 

 he may not be a botanist, yet loves to mark the wild flowers there, is often 

 arrested by the peculiar appearance of this plant. The botanist would at 

 once guess that it was a parasitic plant, from its leafless succulent condition 



