OROBAXCIIF,] OROBANCHE^. 275 



ORDER LIV. OROBAN'CHE.ffl. 



Leafless brownish root-parasites. Stem usually stout, subsimple, scaly. 

 Rootstock thick, prostrate, tuberous, naked or scaly. Flowers usually in 

 dense spikes or racemes, sometimes secund, irregular. Sepals 4-5, inferior, 

 free or connate. Corolla hypogynous, tube curved ; limb 2-lipped, 

 rarely regular ; upper lip arched, lower 3-fid ; throat with 2 villous 

 folds. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on the corolla-tube ; anthers 

 2-celled, cells spurred at the base, opening by lateral slits or basal pores. 

 Disk hypogynous, unilateral, or a gland or 0. Ovary of 2 connate carpels ; 

 style simple, curved at the tip, stigma capitate 2-lobed ; ovules many, 

 rarely few, anatropous, inserted on 2 pairs of free or confluent parietal 

 placentas. Capsule 1-celled, 2-valved, few- or many-seeded. Seeds minute, 

 testa thick pitted or tubercled, raphe obsolete, albumen fleshy ; embryo 

 ovoid, undivided or 2-fid. DISTRIB. Temp, and trop. ; most abundant 

 in S. Europe and E. Asia ; genera 14, species 125. AFFINITIES. With 

 Scrophularincce and Cyrtandracece, and possibly parasitic forms of these. 

 PROPERTIES. Astringent and bitter. 



Base of corolla persistent 1. Orobanche. 



Corolla deciduous 2. Lathraea. 



1. OROBANCHE, L. BROOM-RAPE. 



Mowers usually glandular-pubescent, 1-3-bracteate. Sepals 4, usually 

 connate in pairs, with sometimes a small 5th. Corolla gaping ; upper 

 lip erect, 2-lobed ; lower spreading, 3-lobed. Stamens included, filaments 

 flattened below ; anther-cells spreading. Disk glandular or 0. Ovary 

 ovoid ; style usually glandular, stigma 2-lobed. Capsule incompletely 

 2-valved, many-seeded ; valves cohering at the base and usually at the 

 top also. DISTRIB. Of the Order; species about 70. ETYM. fy>o/3oy, a 

 vetch, and S.v^eiv, to strangle, from its parasitic habit. 



SUB-GEN. 1. Oroban'che proper. Stem usually quite simple. Flowers 

 1 -bracteate, ebracteolate. Calyx-lobes 2, 2-fid, rarely entire. Capsule with 

 the valves coherent above. 



1. O. ma'jor, L. ; brown, sepals 1-3-nerved nearly as long as the corolla- 

 tube, upper lip entire, mid-lobe of lower lip longer than the lateral, filaments 

 glabrous below glandular above, stigma yellow. 0. Rapum, Thuill. 



On roots of shrubby Papilionacece, from Kirkcudbright southwards, rare in 

 Scotland and Ireland, fl. June-Aug. Stem stout, 1-2 ft,, swollen at the 

 base. Spike rather dense-flowered ; bracts equalling or exceeding the 

 corolla. Sepals entire or 2-fid. Corolla 1 in., yellow and purplish, sub- 

 campanulate, curved ; lobes small, waved, scarcely toothed ; upper lip 

 arched, scarcely notched. DISTRIB. Europe from Holland southwards (excl. 

 Turkey), N. Africa. Reichenbach figures the lobes of lower lip as small and 

 equal, and flower as red-brown. I take this to be O. major of Linnaeus, 

 who states that it is parasitic especially on Leguminosie, and quotes for it the 

 Rapum yenistie of Lobel. There are no specimens in Linn. Herb. 



2. O. ela'tior, Sutt. ; yellow, sepals 2-fid 2-3-nerved as long as the 

 corolla-tube, lobes of lip subequal acute, filaments glandular below 

 glabrous above, stigma yellow. 



T2 



