DODDER AND BROOMRAPE. 131 



however, they remain very conspicuous by 

 their colour, which is not green, owing to the 

 absence of chlorophyll, but is due to the 

 same pigment as that of the blossoms. This 

 generally happens with parasites, or with 

 that other curious sort of plants known as 

 saprophytes, which live upon decaying living 

 matter in the mould of forests. As they 

 need no green leaves, but have often in- 

 herited leafy structures of some sort, in a 

 more or less degenerate condition, from their 

 self-supporting ancestors, they usually dis- 

 play most beautiful colours in their stems 

 and scales, and several of them rank amongst 

 our handsomest hot-house plants. Even the 

 dodder has red stalks. Their only work in 

 life being to elaborate the materials stolen 

 from their host into the brilliant pigments 

 used in the petals for attracting insect fer- 

 tilisers, they pour this same dye into the 

 stems and scales, which thus render them 

 still more conspicuous to the insects' eyes. 

 Moreover, as they use their whole material 



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