388 OROBANCHACEAE (BROOM-RAPE FAMILY) 
Broom-rapes are parasites, or robber plants, living directly on their 
neighbors by attaching strong haustoria, or suckers, to their roots, 
penetrating the tissues, and absorbing the food materials gathered 
and assimilated by the host plants for their own development. 
This species was brought to this country in imported hemp and to- 
bacco seed, and in like manner its range here is being extended. 
A Broom-rape seedling appears like a mere light-colored, nearly 
transparent thread, without root or any green part, having power to 
push its way into the soil but not to draw any sustenance from it. 
If a suitable host is not found soon after germinating, it shrivels 
and dies; but if the downward-boring tip comes in contact with 
the host adapted to it, in this case a plant of tobacco or hemp, it 
develops a club-shaped attachment covered with little pegs, or 
suckers, which penetrate and seem to become a part of the host 
plant’s root, from which thereafter its life is drawn. At the point 
of juncture a bud is formed and a stem arises, six to fifteen inches 
tall, rather fleshy at base, dividing into several slender branches, 
the whole plant brownish yellow in color, with a few scattered scales 
instead of leaves. The flowers are in spikes terminating the 
branches, sessile or on very short pedicels, subtended by three or 
fewer small, scale-like bracts; each blossom has a persistent, four- 
lobed calyx and an irregular, two-lipped corolla about a half-inch 
long, with yellow tube and pale bluish lips, the upper one two-cleft, 
the lower one more spreading and three-parted; four stamens, 
inserted on the tube and included; ovary one-celled, the style very 
long, with two-lipped stigma. Capsule bluntly ovoid, ‘one-celled, 
two-valved, containing an immense number of the most minute 
seeds, which are widely sown by the winds and, though so small, 
are very long-lived, having been known to survive in the soil for 
as many as thirteen years. 
Means of control 
If the infestation is new, it will pay to pull or grub out and de- 
stroy the stalks as fast as they attain to flowering size, in order to 
prevent any development and distribution of seed. Burn all stems 
of tobacco or hemp from infested fields and cultivate some other 
crops on that ground for several seasons. 
