( 39 ) 
any want of fupport from it's neighbours, be- 
ing a ftiff fhort-ftemmed plant; this is the 
orobanche major ; it grows upon the roots of 
other plants, chiefly upon the butterfly -flow- 
ered tribe : it has an extremely fmall feed, 
which makes it difficult to fliow it's vegetation 
by experiment, more particularly as it re- 
quires a peculiar foil and fituation for it's cul- 
ture. Mr, Curtis, in his London Flora, gives 
a plate of it, and fuppofes, that, when the 
feed has firft vegetated in the earth, the Pta- 
dicle flioots downwards, till it finds a proper 
root to attach itfelf to ; that then it quits it's 
parent earth, and becomes parafitical. In this 
ftate it is frequently found upon broom hills, 
the roots of the common broom (fpartium 
fcoparium) being peculiarly grateful to it ; 
though, when it contents itfelf with the earth 
for it's nutriment, it grows in corn-fields and 
on hedge-banks. The fifth kind of Fulcra, 
Pubefcence, might, perhaps, have been more 
properly denominated a defence than a fup- 
port. This term is applied to every kind of 
hairynefs which exifts on plants. If the young 
parts of plants be examined by a microfcope, 
particularly the young ftalks or fterns, almoft 
all of them will be found covered with hairs: 
D 4 this 
