1 62 tRambles witb IRature Students 



species sending up really handsome spikes of lilac- 

 tinted flowers. 



The Rev. Professor G. Henslow, speaking of this 

 broom-rape, says, 1 ' A field of beans just outside 

 Cairo looked at a distance like some nursery ground 

 for gorgeously flowering herbaceous plants in masses, 

 as there was more of the broom-rape to be seen 

 than beans. It consisted of tall spikes some four 

 feet in height, densely covered with white, yellow, 

 and lavender-coloured blossoms of different shades. 



' It would make a splendid herbaceous border plant, 

 of course associated with some broad bean plants for 

 it to live upon. By dumb show I pointed out 

 to an Arab the necessity of cutting them down, 

 pointing to some dead bean plants. He only 

 shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, <( Kismet,' 

 and then walked away.' 



I confess it was a little sad to watch my bean 

 plant, thus preyed upon, diminishing in vigour and 

 at last dying a victim to scientific experiment. I 

 could not but speculate as to the use and intention 

 of the creation of these parasitic plants. I have 

 arrived at no satisfactory conclusion, and must leave it 

 as a problem for my readers to solve. 



1 The Gardeners Chronicle, July 30, 1898. 



