•372 OR0BANCHACE.« 



1. Orobanche. — Ui>pcr lip oi corolla erect, 2-Iobcd. 



2. LATHR.tA. — Flowers secund ; upper lip of roroUn arched, 

 c;rtirc. 



I. Orop.anche (Broom-rape). — Parasites with flowers in a 

 many-sided spike, with i — 3 bracts below .each ; calyx of 2, lateral, 

 usually 2-cleft sepals ; corolla gaping, 4 — 5-cleft, its upper lip 

 erect, 2-lobed, its base persistent. (Name from the Greek orohos, 

 a vetch, ancho, I strangle, from the injurijous effects produced in 

 the plants to which they attach themselves.) 



* Brads 3 under eacli flower 



I. purpi'irea (Blue Broom-rape). — A slender, tough, un- 

 branched species, with pale blue flowers with purjile vein,s, occur- 

 ring on Milfoil. — Southern counties; rare. — Fl. June, July. 

 Pereruiial. 



2.* 0. ramjsa (Branched Broom rape), distinguished by its 

 branched ston, occurs on the roots of l|emp, with the seeds of 

 which it is introduced, but is very rare.^^Fl. August, September. 

 Annual. 



** Bracts one to eachjiower 



3. O. major (Greater Broom-rape). — A stout, viscid, leafless 

 club-like plant, of a reddish-brown hue, with stem much swollen at 

 the base, and clothed with ta|iering scales, which pass into bracts 

 as they ascend the stem ; flowers crowded into a dense spike ; 

 corolla reddish-yellow, tubular, the lower lip 3-lobed, the middle 

 lobe blunt and longer than the others ; ^stamens inserted at the 

 base of the corolla, smooth below, downy above ; style downy ; 

 stigma of 2 diverging yellow Iob(;s. — On the roots of Furze, 

 Broom, and other shrubs of the Order L'egwninosa: ; frequent. — 

 Fl. May — August. Perennial. 



4. 0. r/'/bra (Ked Broom-rape). A small, reddish species, 4 — S 

 in. high, with a loose spike of dull red sv¥eet-scented fltntiers, with 

 a downy corolla and pale pink, 2-lobed stigma. — On the roots of 

 Tliyme when growing on basaltic rock in Scotland and Ireland, 

 and on magnesian rock at the Lizard; rare. — F"l. lune — August. 

 Perennial. 



5. 0. caryophylldcea (Clove-scented Broom-rape), a similar, but 

 stouter, brown species with rcddish-brown or purjjlish floieers, with 

 hairy stamens and a dark purple stigma,, grows on the roots of 

 Gdlium Molliigo (Hedge Bed-straw) in Kent. — Fl. June, July. 

 Perennial. 



6. 0. eliitior (Tall P>rooni-rape). — .\ tall, yellow plant, 2 — 3 feet 

 high, with many- veined sepals ; corolla slightly compressed above, 



