Orobanche.] orobanchaceje. 363 



tumid glandular ring. 0. Rapum Genistse, Thuill. Fl. Par. 2nd 

 ed. p. 317 ? O. major, L. : Reich. Icon. Bot. viii. fig. 900 ? Br. 

 Fl.T^. 384. E. B. vi. t. 431. Sutton in Linn. Trans, iv. p. 175. 

 Leighton, Fl. Shrop. 



On heaths, commons, and bushy pastures where furze and broom abound, on 

 the roots of which it is parasitic ; rare. Fl. June, July. 2f. 



JE. Med. — On Briddlesford heath and parts adjacent, on the roots of furze, not 

 unfrequent; noticed by Mr. Borrer in an excursion I made with him in 1840. 

 A specimen or two on a bank by the roadside not far from Lynn farm, 1843. On 

 the roots of broom and furze between Ninham and Quarr abbey, 1845. Very 

 abundantly in the last station in 1846. 



The largest of our Isle-of- Wight species. Root of a few fibres partly attached 

 to the plant, from which it derives a portion of its nourishment. Stem usually 

 solitary, sometimes 2 or even more, very stout, often as thick as the finger, 12—18 

 inches or 2 feet high, erect, solid or sometimes fistulose, bluntly angular, furrowed, 

 downy all over with white, gland-tipped, pellucid hairs, pale or usually purplish 

 brown, very tumid at the base, where it is sheathed with close-set, erect, smooth, pur- 

 plish or yellowish and fleshy scales, of a broadly ovate shape, becoming narrower, 

 thinner, hairy and more distant as they ascend, the uppermost linear-lanceolate, 

 spreading or recurved, and in all respects like the floral bracts. Flowers nume- 

 rous, erect, sessile, placed alternately in a gradually elongating, cylindrical, rather 

 dense spike, soon withering to a dull rusty brown ; those near the summit before 

 expansion of a pale purplish yellow, each with a single, lanceolate, taper-pointed, 

 finally recurved hract, about equal to or rather longer than the flower it subtends. 

 Calyx variable in length, in 2 broad, concave, villous lobes, each lobe cleft into 

 2 lanceolate-acuminate single-ribbed segments. Corolla about 9 or 10 lines long, 

 very hairy, bell-shaped, the tube short, wide and nearly straight, ventricose or a 

 little inflated; upper lip large, galeate, arched, irregularly waved, plaited or 

 notched, but not lobed or divided, the sides spreading or a little reflexed ; lower 

 lip in 3 pretty equal, subacute, undulate, plicate segments, of which the central 

 one is usually rather larger and longer (often considerably so) than the others 

 and more obtuse, sometimes indeed, as are the lateral segments, occasionally 

 rounded or at least cordate, the edges of all and of the upper lip minutely arose 

 and crenulate. Stamens inserted on the tube quite at the bottom, implexed in 

 pairs at their summit, their filaments curved, flattened and dilated downwards, 

 plane or channelled on their inner side, quite smooth for f rds of their length, 

 their upper third glanduloso-pilose, though very sparingly so ; anthers of 2 distinct, 

 oblong, awned lobes, each lobe appearing 2-celled, having a longitudinal septum 

 running throughout ; pollen white. Style included or exserted, cylindrical, in- 

 curved, hairy its entire length, suddenly dilated into the two yellow, very distinct, 

 globose, diverging lobes of the stigma. German oblong, hairy, with a bright 

 yellow lobed and tumid gland encircling its base, especially in front, which 

 secretes a honied fluid in great quantity. Capsules oblongo-elliplical. Seeds 

 numerous, minute and unequal in size, of a roundish not at all elongated figure, 

 shining and nearly jet-black, covered with a prominent network of large angular 

 cells, very beautiful under a microscope. 



The flowers are not only much larger but more erect than in our other species, 

 more enlarged, widened or bell-shaped upwards, and more ringent. 



2. O. minor, Sin.. Lesser Broom-rape. Yect. Shepherd's Pouches. 

 Stem simple, corolla subcylindrical, lower lip in 3 equal crisped 

 and plaited obtuse lobes, stamens hairy on the inner side of their 

 lower dilated part, style smooth or nearly so, germen quite gla- 

 brous. Br. Fl. p. 286. E. B. t. 423. 



p. Flowers pure white or nearly so. 

 y. Herb pale yellow or amber -coloured. 



