PLANTS THAT ROB AND MURDER 69 
There is a large group of robber plants that 
belong to the lowly and humble class; they grow on 
the earth and attach their roots to the roots of other 
plants, who “can afford to be generous .. . and 
allow a whole world of lesser plants to fatten round 
their feet.” These humble plants have long ago 
Jost all ambition and are satisfied if they can get 
from their host only enough food on which to live. 
The broom-rapes exist in this fashion. One species 
grows freely on tobacco in Kentucky; another type 
grows on hemp. 
Still another interesting robber is the corpse 
plant, or Indian-pipe. It is a fungus-like plant, 
with a bunch of fibrous roots growing in decayed 
vegetable matter or old roots of trees. The bunches 
of ghostly, white stems have each a large white 
flower, which turns black immediately upon being 
plucked. These weird flowers are odourless. They 
were held in great esteem by the Indians, who re- 
garded each as the symbolic expression of a de- 
parted friend. 
Then there are the ravaging and ever-increasing 
parasitical fungi, such as mildews, smuts, rusts, 
rose-blight, pea-blight, and potato-blight, which 
thrive largely upon living plants; very rarely, if 
ever, on the dead. Farmers and florists are ever 
at war with them; and it is not surprising, for they 
