THE Hour 



41 



green colorinf; matter, is aWe like all green plants to proviile for itself ; 

 and it does carry on the work of forming plant food in a(ndte normal 



Roots of the Yel]ri\Y Gerardia, some of 

 them parasitic on the root of a Blue- 

 berry bush. 



way even while taking the sap 

 of other plants. This is, there- 

 fore, the case of a piirlkd para- 

 site. 



61. Parasites proper, which 

 strike their roots into the tissues 

 of living plants, or form attach- 

 ments to their snrface so as to 

 suck up their juices, are amongst 

 the nrost interesting of all vege- 

 table f(.)rms. Of this sort is the 

 ]\Iistletoe (Fig. ;il),i the seed 

 of wliicli gei'iidnates on the 

 l)ougli where it falls or is left 

 by birds; and the forming root 

 penetrates tlie bark and en- 

 grafts itself into the wood, to 

 which it becomes united as 

 firmly as a natural branch to 

 its i>areiit stem; and iiuleed tlie 

 parasite lives just as if it were 

 a liranch of tlie tree it grows 

 and feeds on. A most common parasitic herb is the Dodder (Fig. 3:2), 

 which aliounds in low grouiuls in summer, and coils its long and 

 slender, leafless, yellowish stems — resembling tangled threads of yarn 

 — round anil I'onnd the stocks of other plants; wherever tliey touch, 

 ]iiprcing tlie bark wilh minute and very short rootlets in the form 

 of suckers, which draw out tlie nourisliing juices of the plants 

 laid hohl of. Other parasitic plants, like the Fjeecli Drops and Fine- 



."^f . Plants of the ].)\varf ]\fistletoe para- 

 sitic ou a hranrli of the Spruce. 



^ Not the Mistletoe proper of the Old Wm-ld. The plant represented is 

 an American relative of the well-known European plant, very much 

 smaller, and properly denominated the Dwarf Mistletoe. 



