90 THE ROOT. 



and branches of trees ; their roots merely adhering to the bark to 

 fix the plant in its position, or else hanging loose in the air, from 

 which such plants draw all their nourishment. Of this kind are a 

 large portion of the gorgeous Orchidaceous plants of very warm 

 and humid climes, which are so much prized in hot-houses, and 

 which, in their flowers as well as their general aspect, exhibit such 

 fantastic and infinitely varied forms. Some of the flowers resem- 

 ble butterflies, or strange insects, in shape as well as in gaudy col- 

 oring ; such, for example, as the Oncidium Papilio (Fig. 1'20), 

 which we have selected for one of our illustrations. To another 

 family of Epiphytic plants belongs the Tillandsia, or Long Moss, 

 which, pendent in long and gray tangled clusters or festoons from 

 the branches of the Live-Oak or Long-leaved Pine, gives such a 

 peculiar and sombre aspect to the forests of the warmer portions 

 of our Southern States. They are called Air-plants, in allusion to 

 the source of their nourishment ; and Epiphytes, from their grow- 

 ing upon other plants, and in contradistinction to 



133. Parasites, that not only grow upon other vegetables, but live 

 at their expense ; which Epiphytes do not. Parasitic plants may 

 be divided into two sorts, viz. : 1st, those that have green foli- 

 age, and 2d, those that are destitute of green foliage. They may 

 vary also in the degree of parasitism ; the greater number being 

 absolutely dependent upon the foster plant for nourishment, while 

 a few, such as the Curbed Fig (Clusia rosea) of tropical America, 

 often take root in the soil, and thence derive a part, or sometimes 

 the whole, of their support. This occurs only in 



134. Green Parasites, or those furnished with green foliage, or 

 proper digestive organs of their own. These strike their roots 

 through the bark and directly into the new wood of the foster 

 plant ; whence they can draw little except the ascending, mostly 

 crude sap (79), which they have to assimilate in their own green 

 leaves. The Mistletoe is the most familiar exam-pie of this class. 

 It is always completely parasitic, being at no period connected 

 with the earth ; but the seed germinates upon the trunk or branch 

 of the tree where it happens to fall, and its nascent root, or rather 

 the woody mass that it produces in place of the root, penetrates 

 the bark of the foster stem, and forms as close a junction, ap- 

 parently, with its young wood as that of a natural branch. Some 

 species of Mistletoe, or of the same family, however, display no 

 proper green foliage, but are of a yellow or brown hue. On the 



