OKOBANCIIACE^:. 189 



4, didynamous, inserted in the tube of the corolla, sub-exserted ; 

 filaments flattened at the base ; anthers 2-celled, the cells divaricate 

 at the base, mucronate. Style simple, curved at the apex ; stigma 

 bi-globular. Capsule ovoid-conical, 1-celled, 2-valved at the apex, 

 with 4 broad or 2 rather narrow placentee, with 4 or 5 or numerous 

 seeds. 



Glabrous fleshy herbs with subterranean stems, parasitical on 

 the roots of various dicotyledonous plants. 



The name of this genus of plants is derived from theGreek word Xaflpcuoc (lalhraios), 

 secret ; descriptive of the shady recesses in which only it is found. 



SPECIES I— LATHR^JA SQUAMARIA. Linn. 



Plate MVI. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCCLX1X. 

 r.illut, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 430. 



Flowers numerous, drooping, arranged in 2 rows in a secund 

 spikelike raceme. Seeds rather numerous, affixed to 4 broad pla- 

 centae approximating in pairs. 



Parasitical on the roots of trees, especially hazel, in damp 

 shady places. Rather rare. Besides the hazel, it grows on the oak, 

 beech, ash, elm, walnut, ivy, vine, and laurel. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring and 

 early Summer. 



Rootstock branched, giving off slender fibres which attach them- 

 selves by minute tubercles to the roots of the plant on which it is 

 parasitic. "Whole plant white, with a somewhat translucent appear- 

 ance, frequently tinged with purple, clothed below with thick fleshy 

 brittle scales. Branches short, thick, cylindrical, conical at the apex, 

 with scales like the rootstock. Flowering-stem erect, fleshy, 3 inches 

 to 1 foot high, white and glabrous at the base, tinged with purple or 

 rose, and slightly pubescent towards the top, with a few scales in 

 the lower part, terminated by a dense unilateral raceme, at first bent 

 over like that of Monotropa, but straightening as the flowers expand. 

 Flowers white, more or less tinged with purplish-pink, drooping or 

 horizontal, each with a broadly ovate bract set obliquely on the stem 

 at the base of the pedicel. Pedicels shorter than the calyx, clothed 

 with jointed hairs. Calyx bilabiate, somewhat inflated, each lip 

 cleft into 2 deltoid connivent segments, clothed with a few hairs. 

 Corolla longer than the calyx ; upper lip entire or slightly notched, 

 concave ; lower lip 3-lobed, with the lobes crimped at the margins ; 

 filaments hairy. Anthers cohering, fringed with woolly hairs. Style 



