342 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



The latter are irregularly cut and hairy. The corolla is sticky 

 on the outside. 



This graceful, handsome herb is found in light woods along our 

 entire Atlantic border. 



76. Cow-wheat 



Melampyruin Americanum ("black wheat," from the dark 

 seed). — Family, Figwort. Color, dull, greenish yellow. Leaves, 

 opposite, lance-shaped, with short petioles, the lower entire, 

 the upper with bristly teeth at base, more and more crowded 

 towards the top of the stem. Time, summer. 



Calyx, tubular. Corolla, 2-lipped, the upper arched, cover- 

 ing the stamens ; lower 3-lobed, nearly ^ inch long. Stamens, 

 4. Pistil, I. 



One of our commonest plants of the woods, low, shrubby, a 

 good deal branched, with single flowers in the axils above. The 

 flowers and floral leaves are hardly to be distinguished in color. 



77. Beech-drops. Cancer-root 



Epiphegus Virginiana. — Family, Broom-rape. Color, brown- 

 ish, witli a purple tinge. Leaves, none ; brown scales instead. 

 Time, August, September. 



The flowers of this singular plant are staminate above and 

 pistillate below, in a spike. Calyx, 5 -toothed. Corolla of 

 sterile flowers, 4-toothed. The plants are parasitic on roots 

 of other plants, especially beech-trees, and possess no green 

 stems or leaves. The corolla of the fertile flowers does not 

 open, but is pushed up and off by the pod in its growth. The 

 plant is slender, stiff, branched. 6 to 12 inches high. 



I have found it in chestnut woods, where apparently no beeches 

 grew. 



78. Squaw-root 



Conipholis Americana is a thick, fleshy, root-parasitic plant, 



