DODDER AND BROOMRAPE, 125 



the dodder has none. It is one of the most 

 thorough-going parasites in all nature. Or- 

 dinary green-leaved plants live by making 

 starches for themselves out of the carbonic 

 acid in the air, under the influence of sun- 

 light ; but the dodder simply fastens itself 

 on to another plant, sends down rootlets or 

 suckers into its veins, and drinks up sap 

 stored with ready-made starches or other food- 

 stuffs, originally destined by its host for the 

 supply of its own growing leaves, branches, 

 and blossoms. It lives upon the gorse just 

 as parasitically as the little green aphides 

 live upon our rose-bushes. The material 

 which it uses up in pushing forth its long 

 thread-like stem and clustered bells is so 

 much dead loss to the unfortunate plant on 

 which it has fixed itself. 



Old-fashioned books tell us that the mis- 

 tletoe is a perfect parasite, while the dodder 

 is an imperfect one ; and I believe almost 

 all botanists will still repeat the foolish say- 

 ing to the present day. But it really shows 



