Gi NTIAK Ml.-.) 



OROBAN( HAI I i. 





Order CCXXXV. OROBANCHAGE.E— B 





"■"•' • *•• »* P- ^-Orubanchiua, B>. i. ^ 



Diagnosis.- GetOumal Exogi nx, with no stipule*, »/„,, • . 

 tfyfe, parietal plaa ntas, and didyna 



,, '' ,,,,: " ™ ^f 88 , P ,ante . g«>wing parasitically upon the r I 



Stems covered with brown or colourless scales. Calyx divided, persistent 



( oroua monopetalous, hypogynous, irregular, persistent with 



an imbricated aestivation. Stamens 4, didynamous. Anthers 



occasionally l-celled, but more generally 2-celled, the cells 



distinct, parallel, often mucronate, or bearded at the I 



Ovary superior, l-celled, seated in a fleshy disk, with 2 or 



more parietal polyspermous placentae, the 2 carpels of wliich 



it consists placed ri-lit an.l lift of the axis ; style 1 ; stigma 



-'-lnl.,-,1. Fruit capsular, inclosed within the withered corolla, 



l-celted,2-valved,each valve bearing 1 or 2 placentae in the 



middle. Seeds indefinite, very minute ; embryo minute, at the 



base of fleshy albumen. 



Broomrapes are generally compared with Gesnerworte ana 

 Figworts, from both which they are very different in habit 

 rhey are distinguished from Gesnerworts by the important cir- 

 enmstance of their seeds having only a minute embryo lying in 

 one end of fleshy albumen, and Bpherical pollen, while the em- 

 bryo of Gesnerworts i- cylindrical and erect, occupying the axis 

 of a small quantity only of albumen, and the pollen elliptical, 

 with a furrow on one side. In Gesnerworts the 

 attached by rather long funiculi, while 

 they are absolutely sessile in lirooin- 

 rapes. Moreover, there is a tendency 

 in the latter to become pentandrous, 

 even hexandrous; not only does no : 

 such tendency exist in the former, but 

 the reverse takes place, in the occa- 

 sional increased Btenlityofthe stamens. 

 There is scarcely any trace in < >r. .- 

 banche of the glandular processes of 

 the disk of Gesnerworts, or at least 

 nothing more than a thin glandular 

 coating to the base of the ovary. 

 Prom Figworts, to which their didyna- 

 mous stamens have caused them to be 

 compared, they are known by their l-celled ovary and minute 

 their habit and parasitical mode of growth, lii thi~ 

 from which they differ in their ovary being c m] - 

 their irregular unsymmetricaJ flowers, with epij 

 doubt, however, that the nearest affinity of Brooi 

 ol which, as for example, Vbyria, they even corn spond in their 

 moreover in their co rolla adhering firmly to the baa of tl 



Kg. CUCCX1L— Auoplanthus uniflorua. 1. a flew : i k«Uod v : 



■». tlie section of it to show the embrvo. 





