BROOM-RAPE TRIBE. 449 



capsules and seeds of Henbane, smoked like tobacco, 

 are a rustic remedy for the tooth-ache ; but convulsions 

 and temporary insanity are said to be sometimes the 

 consequences of their use. Fl. June, July. Annual 

 or Biennial. 



ORD. LX. OBOBANCHACE^;. BROOM-RAPE TRIBE. 



Calyx variously divided, not falling off ; corolla irre- 

 gular, 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 small, 

 numerous, attached to the valves of the capsule in 2 4 

 rows. A tribe of herbaceous plants, distinguished by a 

 stout succulent stem, which is of a peculiar dingy red 

 hue, bearing no leaves, but more or less clothed with 

 taper-pointed scales, which are most abundant about the 

 swollen base of the stem. The flowers are large for the 

 size of the plant, and in all British species are of nearly 

 the same hue as the stem, and arranged in a spike not 

 unlike a head of asparagus, with one or more scale-like 

 bracts at the base of each flower. All the species are 

 parasitical on the roots of other plants. The seeds, it is 

 said, will lie buried for some years in the ground without 

 vegetating, until they come in contact with the young 

 roots of some plant adapted to their wants, when they 

 immediately sprout, and seize on the points of the roots, 

 which swell, and serve as a base to the parasite. There 

 are but two British genera belonging to this order, 

 Orobdnche and Lathrcea, of which some attach themselves 

 to particular species ; others infest particular tribes, and 

 others, again, have a wider range of subjects. Several 

 of those belonging to the genus Orobdnche are very 

 difficult of discrimination ; botanists, indeed, are not 

 agreed as to the number of species ; some uniting under 

 a common name specimens found growing on various 

 plants ; others considering a slight variation in structure, 

 a a 



