388 OROBANCHACEAE (BROOM-RAPE FAMILY) 



Broom-rapes are parasites, or robber plants, living directly on their 

 neighbors by attaching strong haustoria, or suckers, to their roots, 

 penetrating the tissues, and absorbing the food materials gathered 

 and assimilated by the host plants for their own development. 

 This species was brought to this country in imported hemp and to- 

 bacco seed, and in like manner its range here is being extended. 



A Broom-rape seedling appears like a mere light-colored, nearly 

 transparent thread, without root or any green part, having power to 

 push its way into the soil but not to draw any sustenance from it. 

 If a suitable host is not found soon after germinating, it shrivels 

 and dies ; but if the downward-boring tip comes in contact with 

 the host adapted to it, in this case a plant of tobacco or hemp, it 

 develops a club-shaped attachment covered with little pegs, or 

 suckers, which penetrate and seem to become a part of the host 

 plant's root, from which thereafter its life is drawn. At the point 

 of juncture a bud is formed and a stem arises, six to fifteen inches 

 tall, rather fleshy at base, dividing into several slender branches, 

 the whole plant brownish yellow in color, with a few scattered scales 

 instead of leaves. The flowers are in spikes terminating the 

 branches, sessile or on very short pedicels, subtended by three or 

 fewer small, scale-like bracts ; each blossom has a persistent, four- 

 lobed calyx and an irregular, two-lipped corolla about a half-inch 

 long, with yellow tube and pale bluish lips, the upper one two-cleft, 

 the lower one more spreading and three-parted ; four stamens, 

 inserted on the tube and included ; ovary one-celled, the style very 

 long, with two-lipped stigma. Capsule bluntly ovoid, one-celled, 

 two-valved, containing an immense number of the most minute 

 seeds, which are widely sown by the winds and, though so small, 

 are very long-lived, having been known to survive in the soil for 

 as many as thirteen years. 



Means of control 



If the infestation is new, it will pay to pull or grub out and de- 

 stroy the stalks as fast as they attain to flowering size, in order to 

 prevent any development and distribution of seed. Burn all stems 

 of tobacco or hemp from infested fields and cultivate some other 

 crops on that ground for several seasons. 



