60 



belong Hedera Helix, Ampelopsis quinquefolia, Bignonia radi- 

 cans, &c. These plants attach themselves by means of small 

 crampons to neighbouring objects without deriving their nou- 

 rishment from them. Similar crampons (Haftwurzeln) are also 

 observed in some semi-parasitical plants, as in Cuscuta and 

 Cassytha ; M. linger even believes that the tubercles in La- 

 thraa, Orobanche, &c., should be regarded as such formations, 

 in which view I cannot concur. 



Under the second group of false parasites are classed Bro- 

 melia, TillandsicB, Epidendra, and other Orchidea, as also 

 Mosses and Lichens : the roots of these plants, in so far as 

 they possess such, are capable of vegetating only in vegetable 

 mould, or in the continually decaying outer bark of woody 

 plants. In the third group of false parasites, in which the last 

 state of limitation is found, are enumerated the twiners. 



The grouping of the true parasites above-mentioned, ac- 

 cording to M. Unger, appears to me to be too much subdi- 

 vided; I for instance, should combine the three first groups, and 

 propose various other modifications. I can in this place how- 

 ever only mention the most prominent points of the new ob- 

 servations on which M. Unger establishes his divisions. In 

 the history of the development of the parasites of the first 

 group, Dr. Blume's observations on the germination of Brug- 

 mansia are related, but it appears to me as if these observations 

 were made subsequently to the time when Dr. Blume sent me 

 a bud of Brugmansia for examination. M. Unger thinks that 

 R. Brown's notion of an intermediate production derived from 

 the root of the Cissus on which Rafflesia Arnoldi is situated is 

 erroneous ; the error however is on the other side. In the 

 Brugmansia, which is fixed on the root of Cissus tuberculatus, 

 I found this intermediate body, which had entirely proceeded 

 from the substance of the root, of very considerable size, just 

 as I have figured it from a cross section in the Flora Javae, Tab. 

 VI. fig. 1. This intermediate body forms with its parenchy- 

 matous margins a cup in which the opened flower is seated as 

 in a calyx. Hence it follows that at least the first two groups 

 should be united. Whether the intermediate body is somewhat 

 larger or smaller does not signify at present. 



No rhizoma exists in Lathraa, but a highly ramified root 



