406 ZEssojfs yviTB plants 



Suggestions. — Darwin's "Power of Movements in Plants" is 

 the first literature to be consulted in connection with the forego- 

 ing subjects. Geddes' "Chapters in Modern Botany" will also be 

 useful. Let the pupil grow beans in pots or boxes and watch the 

 positions of the young leaves at midday, at dusk, in darkness, in 

 early morning. The flowers of the common yellow and violet 

 oxalises of window gardens, or the ice-plant, are useful for obser- 

 vation. So are some of the cacti, if the pupil has access to them 

 in bloom. On a hot day the pupil should disturb the stamens in 

 the little yellow flowers of the purslane, and watch the movements. 



LXXIX. EPIPHYTES, PARASITES AND 

 SAPROPHYTES 



513. Our attention has already been called to 

 the fact (Obs. Ixvii.) that some plants are para- 

 sitic, obtaining their nourishment from living 

 plants or animals, and that others are sapro- 

 phytic, obtaining their food from decaying organic 

 matter. These are the robbers and beggars of the 

 vegetable world. 



514. The American mistletoe (Fig. 426) is 

 common upon walnuts and other deciduous trees 

 from the Ohio river southwards. It is a spread- 

 ing evergreen bush, bearing flowers and berries 

 freely. The sticky berries are carried by birds, 

 and the seeds, dropping in the crevices of bark, 

 germinate and send a root -like portion through 

 the bark and into the live tissue beneath. From 

 this live tissue food (see 542a) is abstracted; and 



