VARIOUS PARASITIC PLANTS; WITH AN OWL STORY 



939 



position, becoming a pale, tawny salmon color; it is 

 usually ten-grooved and five-celled, and forms a large, 

 fleshy, ovoid seed-vessel." In favorable localities 

 we may meet with a considerable number of Indian 



Pipe plants 

 growing in the 

 same piece of 

 woods. In the 

 hilly, t i m bered 

 country north of 

 Cabin John 

 Bridge, west of 



with False Beech-drops, it is a very different appearing 

 plant (Figs. 5 and 6). 



Quoting Mathews for these Beech-drops, he tells us 

 that it is "a parasitic plant, which draws its sustenance 

 from the roots 

 of the beech 

 tree. The stem is 

 tough, straight, 

 almost upright- 

 branched, stain- 

 ed with brown 

 madder, and set 



Washington, is a with a few small, 

 great place to dry scales. The 



Fig. J-OUR "ONE FLOWERED CANCER- 

 ROOT" IS A CURIOIS PLANT AND THIS IS 

 AN UNUSUALLY FINE SPECIMEN 



The Broom-rape family (Orobanckaceae), to which 

 this plant belongs, is not a very extensive one; 

 its representatives, upon the other hand, possess 

 a special interest for us. 



find them along 

 in June ; while 

 further South, as 

 in southern Vir- 

 ginia, they put 

 in an appearance 

 much earlier. 



Gray d i v ides 

 the genus Mono- 

 tropa into two 

 groups or sub- 

 genera, namely, 

 the Eumonotro- 

 p a , represented 

 by the Indian 

 Pipe, and the 

 Hypopitys, cre- 

 ated to contain, 

 in so far as east- 

 ern United 



curved, tubular, 

 dull magenta and 

 buff-brown up- 

 per flowers are 

 pur pie-striped ; 

 although gener- 

 ally sterile they 

 are complete in 

 every part, the 

 style slightly 

 protruding be- 

 yond, and the 

 stamens just 

 within the 

 throat. The tiny F'k- 



-HERE IS A GROUP OF INDIAN PIPE 

 PLANTS TAKEN IN SITU, JUST AS THEY 

 lower flowers GREW IN NATURE. (Monotropa uniflora) 



Indian Pipe is likewise called Corpse Plants and 

 Pinesap, and some of its relatives in the Heath 

 family (Erincaceae) are White Alder, Shin Leaf, 

 Laurels, Azaleas, Cranberries, Huckleberries and 

 a vast host of others. 



are cleistogam- 

 o u s closed to 

 outward agen- 



botany goes, Monotropa hypopitys, the vernacular cies and self-fertilized. A few of the upper flowers are 



name for which is Pinesap or False Beech Drops. cross-fertilized by bees. 6-20 inches high. Beech woods, 



By way of explanation, it may be said that the plant Maine, south and west to Wisconsin and Missouri. The 



called Beech 

 Drops or Can- 

 cer-Root, b e - 

 longs in the 

 Broom- rape 

 family (0 r - 

 banchaceae) , in 

 which the One- 

 flowered Can- 

 cer-root (0. 

 uniflora), de- 

 scribed above. 

 is found. True 

 Beech -drops 

 are not figured 

 in the present 

 article for the 

 reason that, up 

 to date, no 

 specimens have 

 been met with. 



Fig. 2-THE SOUTH VIEW OF THE MAMMAL HOUSE IN THE NATIONAL "ZOO" WITH ITS 



As com pared L(5w i square tower-this building presents a most attractive picture in 



name means on 

 the beech." 



R e 1 a ted to 

 these Beech- 

 drops, and in 

 the same 

 Broom- rape 

 family, we 

 have still an- 

 other genus of 

 parasitic plants, 

 also represent- 

 ed by a single 

 species, known 

 as Squaw-root 

 or Cancer-root. 

 This genus is 

 Conopholis, and 

 the plant refer- 

 red to is C. 

 am e ricana; it 



