BEOOM-RAPE TRIBE 279 



the result, he succeeded in making it grow. He remarks : "It was four 

 years, and in some cases five, before it came up visibly. I gathered the seeds 

 in Erddig woods, where you ma}' remember we saw it in great luxuriance. 

 It will, however, turn pink or purple when very much exposed to the light ; 

 for having cut away some of the hazel branches to bring it more in view of 

 the walk, the sunbeams, in a few days, turned it so very pinky and purple, 

 that some ladies were very much struck with the beauty and delicacy of the 

 colours, though the plant itself is rather of a repulsive and cadaverous 

 aspect." Like other leafless parasites, however, the plant seems to have the 

 peculiar property of resisting the action of light, towards which all the green 

 portions of a soil-sustained plant irresistibly turn, as Ave may see in those of 

 our windows and greenhouses. The Toothwort, when its flower-stems have 

 acquired their full height, is not always erect, and it branches from the very 

 base. It sometimes grows in little circular groups of twenty or thirty plants 

 together. The flowers, which are ranged down one side of the stem, are as 

 often turned from the only side on which the light can enter as towards it. 

 The flowers are sometimes dull, pale pui-ple, or pink ; sometimes of a brownish 

 or pinkish white. They have broad bracts at their base, and expand in April 

 and May, the pale stem rising from among the withered leaves of the last 

 autumn to about a foot high ; the branches or stems at its base being either 

 below the leafy mass, or frequently beneath the surface of the soil. The 

 subterranean stem has on it a number of scales, which in size, shape, and 

 colour have a very remarkable resemblance to the human front-tooth, and 

 suggested the specific name of Squainaria (from the Latin squama, a scale), as 

 well as the English Toothwort ; and, of course, the herbalists accepted the 

 resemblance as proof that the plant was a cure for toothache. 



The French call this plant La Clandestine ; the Germans, Schuppenvmrz ; 

 the Dutch, Schiibicortel ; the Spaniards, Machvna; the Portuguese, Dentaria 

 bastarda. 



END OF VOL. I J. 



