76 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



part of the stem, which is of a reddish-brown 

 colour ; and the Highlanders chew this part of the 

 plant, and deem it very nutritious. Horses will 

 feed on it, but cows are not fond of it. Pallas 

 found it among the pottery in the old tombs in the 

 south of Russia. 



Any one who knows that large and singular 

 plant, not uncommon on our heath lands, the Great 

 Broom Rape, would at once recognise, should he 

 happen to see it, the much rarer species of our 

 shores, the Red Broom Rape (Orobanche rubrd). 

 Though seldom found on the English coast, it is 

 frequent upon the basalt and trap rocks in the 

 Hebrides and the adjacent shores of the mainland. 

 It grows also on some maritime spots of Ireland. 

 The broom rapes are numbered among our few 

 native parasitic plants, as most of the genus grow 

 on the roots of the furze or broom of our heath 

 lands ; and so parasitic in habit are some of the 

 tribe, that the seeds of the Branched Broom Rape, 

 which grows on hemp, are said to lie inert for 

 many years, unless they come in contact with the 

 roots of their chosen plant, when they will immedi- 

 ately flourish. So too the introduction of the broom 

 and gorse into a neighbourhood, has soon been 

 followed by the luxuriant growth of the Great 

 Broom Rape, which sprang up on their roots. It 

 is no wonder that they, long since, received their 

 name from two words signifying a vetch and to 

 strangle ; and they are in as ill repute as ever for 

 destroying the plants on which they grow, and have 

 several names used in country places expressive of 

 the idea which the peasantry entertain of their 

 injurious effect. They are all so acrid also in their 

 nature as to be refused by cattle. The Red Broom 



