368 OROBANCHACE^. [Orohanche. 



Parasitic on common yarrow in sandy pastures and heathy ground in East Me- 

 dina; rare. i^/. June — August. If. 



E. Med. — In a pasture-field adjoining the rectory at Yaverland, sparingly, 

 1843. Near the cliff opposite the baiTacks on Royal heath, ,7. E. Winterbottom, 

 Esq., 1841 ! In a sandy field just beyond Royal heath, on the footway to Shank- 

 lin, Miss Phillips, 1845!! At Bordwood, Dr. Bell-Salter, 1845. This specimen 

 is the largest I have yet seen, being upwards of 16 inches high, with 3 or 4 stout 

 branches from the bottom of the stem. On the grassy edge of the cliff at the N. 

 end of Sandown bay, J. A. Hankey, Esq., 1843!! A specimen found between 

 Lake and Shanklin, Dr. Bell-Sailer, 1843. 



Root a few short flexuose fibres. Sleni 1 or more, from 3 or 4 to 12 or 15 

 inches high, erect, slender, simple, or, as in one or two of my specimens (from 

 injury?) branched* at the Ijase, rounded and obscurely angular, finely downy all 

 over with erect pedicellate glands, of a dull bluish purple verging upon leaden 

 gray, partly intermixed with rusty red, the lower subterranean portion or caudex 

 whitish brown, and less swollen at the base than in most other species, often elon- 

 gated and flexuose, of uniform thickness or most commonly enlarged at the sum- 

 mit and abruptly contracted immediately beneath, forming a sort of scaly bulb or 

 tuberous crown at the origin of the emerged coloured portion of the stem, which 

 is beset throughout with distant acute scales, which on its upper part are erect, 

 narrow, dark brown or blackish. Brads 3 below each flower, the central and 

 outer one ovato-lanoeolate, acute or taper-pointed, the two lateral and inner 

 inserted rather higher and on the calyx itself, linear-lanceolate, all clothed with 

 glands like the stem, and about equalling the calyx or a little shorter. Flowers 

 in a short obtuse spike at the top of the stem, not very numerous even in the 

 larger specimens, sessile or according to Koch (Deutschl. Fl. iv. Band. s. 46fi) 

 somewhat stalked, which they certainly are not in my specimens. Calyx much 

 shorter than (scarcely above half the length of) the corolla, tubuloso-campanu- 

 late, cleft about half way into 4 (rarely 5, Sutton) triangular-lanceolate, taper- 

 pointed (3- or 5-nerved?) erect segrrlents, with often a rudimentary fifth one at 

 the back, the 2 anterior sepals broader than the 2 posterior, which are separated 

 behind by a wide space and a deep emargination, all glandulose and coloured 

 like the stem and bracts, the rest of the calyx pale yellowish or brownish. Co- 

 rolla extremely glanduloso-pilose, about fths of an inch in length, of a dilute 

 purplish amethyst-blue or violet (in my specimens deeper, and more inclined to 

 the latter colour than the figure in E. B.), strongly marked with (about 16) deep 

 violet ribs, funnel-shaped, considerably curved, a little compressed laterally, with 

 a rather acute dorsal ridge, beneath flattened with 2 deep furrows, forming thus 

 a somewhat triangular circumference, the iuhe short, whitish and ventricose, the 

 throat much dilated, about equally 2-lipped ; upper lip bifid, ascending, with short, 

 divaricate, 3-ribbed, reflexed segments, that are more or less obtuse and rounded 

 or sometimes a little acute, slightly notched and waved ; lower lip broader, in 

 3 deep, deflexed and somewhat recurved subacute segments, that are entire, 

 3-ribbed, the 2 lateral ones ovate, shorter than the middle lobe, which is usually 

 rather narrower and more oblong ; all, like those of the upper lip, clothed with 

 white simple (not glanduliferous) hairs or bristles, extending backwards over the 

 palate and upper part of the throat of the corolla, which is otherwise quite gla- 

 brous inside. Stamens nearly equal, inserted just beneath the white tubular part 

 of the corolla, and therefore very near its base: filaments white, quite glabrous 

 excepting a few hair -like glands on their yellowish enlarged bases; anthers 



* Sutton says that perfect specimens are occasionally branched, and T have a 

 very fine one in that state quite uninjured ; the branches however arise from the 

 top of the underground portion of the jstem as they would from a root-crown, 

 though in another example, apparently somewhat mutilated, a few of the branches 

 spring from the higher part of the stem. [In the list of stations given above, the 

 branching of a very large specimen is described somewhat differently. — Edrs.'] 



