101 



Monotropa establishes itself upon the rootlets of the beech, and by 

 what process the hirsute knobs from which it derives its nourishment 

 are formed. The seed must exercise some power in concentrating the 

 juices of the rootlet about it, and in forming this magazine of nutri- 

 ment, which may be analogous to that performed by the liquid which 

 the Cynips deposits with its egg in the plant or tree frequented by it, 

 producing those curious galls so common on the oak and other vege- 

 tables. It may also be questionable how long the Monotropa requires 

 to arrive at maturity after the seed has fallen, for I would not be too 

 certain that the young plants I met with were seedlings of last year, 

 though it is probable they are so. When once established, numerous 

 offsets are thrown off from the perennial nidus. Monotropa Hypopi- 

 tys varies much in size and luxuriance, some specimens with a single 

 flower being only three inches high, wliile others occur above a foot 

 in height, with a cluster of seven or eight flowers. The strong prim- 

 rose-like scent exhaling from it is very remarkable and characteristic. 



The seeds are peculiar, and as the valves of the capsule open, they 

 appear pressing out at the interstices like a host of very minute worms. 

 Smith describes them as " very numerous, minute, oval, each enve- 

 loped in a membranous reticulated tunic, greatly elongated at both 

 ends." In fact their structure is scarcely discernable with the naked 

 eye from their minuteness, but when examined through a lens, they 

 appear like very minute globules of gum, screwed up in a white elon- 

 gated envelope, and thus simulating the aspect of extremely small 

 worms. They are so adhesive to anything they come in contact with, 

 that even when accidentally dropping on the smooth surface of the 

 finger-nail, they cannot be shaken off. This shows how easily the 

 seeds may affix themselves to the roots of the beech under which they 

 grow, whose radicles, more almost than those of any other tree, ap- 

 proach the surface of the earth, and so occupy the ground that scarce- 

 ly any other plants, besides mosses and fungi, can flourish beneath its 

 shade. 



Malvern Wells, Sept. 28, 1841. Edwin LeeS. 



Art. XXXVI. — Three Days on the Yorkshire Moors. 

 By Richard Spruce, Esq. 



The excursion detailed in the following pages was undertaken, in company witli 

 a botanical friend (Mr. Ibbotson of Gautborpe), principally with the view of explor- 

 ing Whitston-cliffe, on the western edge of the oolitic hills, and the Hole of Horcum, 

 on the high moors between Pickering and Whitby. 



We left Ganthorpe, a small village about a mile and a half West of Castle-How- 



