34 FAX [LIAR WILT) FLOWED. 



bartsia seems less subject to variation than many other 

 species. Amongst the standing corn it may be a foot or 

 more in height, while by the side of the dusty road we 

 see it flowering gallantly under harder conditions, and 

 not more perhaps than four or five inches high. It is 

 sometimes found with white blossoms, a colour- variation 

 which, as we have often seen in the case of other 

 flowers, is by no means rare. One marked variety of the 

 plant has been found in which all the parts are rounder 

 and more richly developed, and this has by some botanists 

 been raised to the rank of a distinct species; but there 

 seems small justification for this, as there is but little 

 doubt that the forms are simply the result of more 

 favourable conditions of growth, and that the plant 

 does not differ in any essential points from the accepted 

 type. In corn-fields, and when growing on fairly good 

 ground, the stems and leaves are often greener and more 

 succulent-looking than those that have a harder fight for 

 existence. The roadside plants are frequently almost 

 entirely purplish-red in colour, and this, added to the 

 dust and dirt of the highway settling on them, gives 

 them an appearance that is graphically described in the 

 term brownweed, one of the provincial names of the 

 bartsia. The plant, whatever its colour, bulk, or posi- 

 tion and station in life, has, as we have said, a strong 

 family likeness running through all the examples, and 

 its identification under any circumstances is by no means 

 difficult. The bartsia is an annual, and should be looked 

 for during June, July, and August, the months when 

 its flowers are developed. 



When we go a little more into detail, and analyse 

 the structure of the plant, we find that its root is very 



