EpiphytdBi and Parasitic Plants of the United States. 1 65 



ler proofs of the value of this ] 

 ice in its virtue. Yours, 



Islewhurgh, N. Y., April, 1836. 



further proofs of the value of this remedy, before placing much 

 reliance in its virtue. Yours, C. & A. J. Downing. 



Art. II. Notice of some of the Epiphytes, and Parasitic Plants 

 of the United States, with Remarks on their Physiological 

 Characters. By John Lewis Russell, Prof Bot. etc., to the 

 Mass. Hort. Soc. 



Although the tropics are peculiarly rich in these curious vegeta- 

 bles, which luxuriate in the dark and rapidly growing and decay- 

 ing forests, yet even our more northern clime, can furnish a few 

 no less interesting to the lover of science, though far less attractive 

 to the artificial taste of the florist. Several genera may be found 

 in the New England States, which, independent of their parasitic 

 character, are remarkable for the singularity of their form. In 

 your siunmer ramble through the dense and damp woods, you may 

 perchance meet with a curious cluster of brown, or yellowish, and 

 extremely succulent, vegetables, covered with a pubescence, and 

 instead of leaves, invested with minute scales. Should your curi- 

 osity prompt you to stoop and examine the anomalous and fungous- 

 looking body, you will discover, gentle reader! the curious and 

 beautiful native epiphytic Orobanche, whose minute examination 

 may repay your attention. This genus forms the type of the nat- 

 ural order of Orobancheae of Jussieu and of Lindley, and under 

 this same order is its cogenus Epiphagus of Nuttall ; which being 

 a parasite on the roots of the beecli ('jPagus) has received from 

 him its beautifully appropriate name.* One species, the " E. amer- 

 icanus," is said to be found in Maine, but not in this vicinity. 



Perhaps not far distant, and in the same ramble, you will notice 

 the remarkable, and ivory Monotropa, in which nature seems to 

 have forgotten her usual livery of green lo invest one of her fairy 

 and delicate productions in a vesture of entire, unsullied purity. 

 By a sort of desecration, it has received, in common language, the 

 trivial name of that instrument, which affords an exhilarating sol- 

 ace to many a devotee to the "fragrant weed." But however 



* We give tlie word as found in his second edition of " Introduction to Bot- 

 any," and as in accordance with our own ideas of its derivation, fTzi' and (f>i)oS. 

 Beck, in his " Botany of the Noithern and Middle States," uses the genus, 

 Epipliatrus, from ifcyoS. Doric.-— 3. L. R. 



