LXI. 0R0BANCHACE2E. 
299 
Orobanche .] 
auricled hastate, corymbs drooping inserted opposite the leaves. 
E. B. t. 565. 
Moist hedges and thickets. Not common in Scotland. About 
Dublin. b- 6 — 8. — Glabrous or hairy. Flowers purple, with 2 
green tubercles at the base of each segment. Anthers large, yellow, 
united in a pyramidal or cone-shaped figure. Berries ovate, red 
This has been much employed in medicine, especially in rustic practice. 
A var. with prostrate diffuse stems, and few or none of the leaves 
hastate, grows on the pebbly sea-beach in Sussex, Cornwall, and 
Galway; it was first noticed by Ray. 
2. S. nigrum L. ( common N .) ; stem without thorns her- 
baceous with tubereled angles, leaves ovate bluntly toothed and 
waved, umbels lateral drooping. E. B. t. 566. — a. pubescence 
incurved upwards, berries usually black. — 8. pubescence patent, 
berries red. S. miniatum Bernh. 
Waste places, fields, &c„ frequent. 8- Jersey. © or $. 6 — 11. 
Flowers white. Berries globose, black or green — red in the var. &. 
The Jersey variety is probably S. miniatum Bernh. ; but most bota- 
nists agree that it is not a distinct species. 
Ord. LXI. OROBANCHACEiE Vent. 
Calyx variously divided, persistent. Corolla irregular, per- 
sistent, with an imbricative asstivation. Stamens 4, didynamous. 
Anthers 2-celled, the cells distinct, parallel, often mucronate. 
Ovary on a fleshy disk, 1 -celled, with 2 — 4 parietal, many-seeded 
receptacles. Style 1 . Stigma 2-lobed. Capsule 2-valved. Seeds 
very minute. Embryo at the apex of a fleshy albumen. — 
Herbaceous, dingy-coloured, somewhat succulent, leafless plants, 
glandular and scaly, generally parasitical on the roots of other 
plants. 
1. Orobanche. Calyx of 2 sepals more or less united. Cor. ringent, 
4 — 5-cleft. 
2. Lathr.ea. Calyx campanulate, 4-cleft. Cor. two-lipped ; upper lip 
entire, concave. 
1 . Orobanche Linn. Broom-rape. 1 
Cal. of 2 lateral, often combined and bifid sepals, bracte- 
ated. Cor. ringent, 4 — 5-cleft. Germen with a gland at the 
base beneath. — Leafless, brown or purplish, herbaceous, scaly 
i In all parasitical plants the appearance may be so completely altered by the 
structure of the tribe they prey upon, that we fear many reputed species are merely 
different forms of the same species. Some of the characters we have given from 
Reuter (in De Candolle’s Prodromus) and others, who have studied the genus in 
a recent state, are not to be detected in dried specimens ; but no species can be con- 
sidered satisfactory by the botanist which cannot be distinguished in both ways. 
Indeed, in all plants the question is not what is a species ? about which very dif- 
ferent opinions will always be entertained ; but how we are to impart our knowledge 
so that others may recognise the aggregate of individuals, called species, in the 
herbarium as readily as in the field. 
o 6 
