The YOUNG HATUBAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 51. FEBRUARY, 1884. Vol. 5. 



PARASITICAL PLANTS. 



By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



{{•"DIG fleas have little fleas upon their 



backs to bite 'em, 

 And these fleas have other fleas, and so ad 

 infinitum.'' 



These oft quoted lines are as 

 true of the vegetable as of the 

 animal world, for it may be safely 

 affirmed that there is no plant, how- 

 ever lowly, but furnishes food for 

 or is preyed upon by some other 

 plant. And on the other hand there 

 is no plant so highly organized as 

 as to escape the attacks and ravages of 

 some one or other of the vegetable 

 parasites. A parasitical plant is one 

 which grows upon, and derives its 

 sustenance from another plant. They 

 are in fact the sluggards and lazy-bones 

 of the vegetable kingdom, and instead 

 of providing an honest living for them- 

 selves, from the mineral and inorganic 

 world around them, they derive a 

 spurious existence from the efforts of 

 their fellow congeners, and thrive and 

 fatten on their exertions. Foremost of 

 these obnoxious comrades are the great 

 army of fungi, which are entirely 



dependent upon previously organized 

 material for their existence. From 

 their universal distribution, amazing 

 fecundity, and often disastrous effects 

 they compel attention. I need only 

 mention the potato disease, the rust, 

 smut, and mildew of wheat, the ergot 

 of rye, the blight of vines and hops, 

 the ringer and toe of turnips, and the 

 dry rot of timber to show how insidu- 

 ous and baneful to man their attacks 

 must be. And when we consider that 

 none of the staple plants of man's 

 culture are free from the attacks of 

 fungi at some stage or other of their 

 existence, the consideration of their 

 life history, and the best means of 

 combatting their ravages must be a 

 subject of paramount importance. But 

 for the present we shall leave them to 

 confine our attention to the more fully 

 developed and highly organized para- 

 sites amongst the flowering plants ; 

 of whom it might be said, that although 

 at one time capable of working for 

 their own living they have now ceased 

 to do so, and sustain an indolent 

 existence at the expense of their 

 more industrious fellows. 



To readers of the Y.N. the general 



