1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
301 
The Cockspur Thorn. 
Englishmen who settle in this country natu¬ 
rally wish to have Hawthorn hedges, and those 
of our countrymen who have seen the “quick” 
hedges abroad, or have read of their beauty, be¬ 
half inches long. There are several native 
forms that have received names as species from 
the earlier botanists, and a number of garden 
varieties have been produced in Europe, some 
of which are only about two feet high. While 
we do not advise the use of this or any other 
the family the Orobanchacea. One of our com¬ 
monest representatives of this family is the 
One-flowered Cancer-root, shown at the right- 
hand of the engraving. These plants are too 
weird in their appearance not to have attracted 
the notice of quacks, and more than one of them 
COCKSfur thorn (Cratcegus Crus-galli.) 
BROOM-RAPES—CANCER-ROOTS. 
come impressed with the idea that the Hawthorn 
is the proper hedge plant. When these enthu¬ 
siasts try the Hawthorn hedge they are sadly 
disappointed. It pats out its leaves late and 
drops them early; under our hot suns the leaves 
soon get a burnt and rusty appearance; and, 
worst of all, they find the hedge attacked by all 
the insects that infest the apple, pear, and re¬ 
lated trees. In our climate the Hawthorn—so 
identified with English rural scenery, and so 
interwoven through English literature—is prac¬ 
tically useless. We are far from commending 
any thorn as a hedge plant, but there is no one 
of the large genus so well adapted to the use as 
the Cockspur Thorn. This is an indigenous 
shrub or small tree, found from Canada to the 
Gulf, aud extending west of the Mississippi. 
As ordinarily met with, it is a shrub, but under 
favorable conditions it forms a handsome round- 
headed tree fifteen or twenty feet high. It is 
distinguished from other species by the exceed¬ 
ing neatness of its habit. The leaves are obo- 
vate—broadest towards the extremity—varying 
considerably in shape, serrate on the edges ex¬ 
cept near the base, very thick, bright and shin¬ 
ing above, aud conspicuously veined below. 
The flowers are in clusters of from two to six 
in a simple corymb, and are larger than in most 
of our native species. They are succeeded by 
a small bright red fruit. The thorns of this 
species are slender, and from two to two and a 
thorn as a hedge plant, we can commend it as 
an ornamental shrub or tree, and it bears clip¬ 
ping as well as the other species. As is the case 
with other native and foreign thorns, the seeds 
of this do not germinate until the second year. 
--- — » —* m 
The Broom-rapes. 
Those who go through the woods with their 
eyes open must have met with one or more 
members of the Broom-rape Family. They all 
have a singular uncanny look, being entirely 
destitute of proper leaves, but bearing colored 
scales in place of them. These plants have no 
need of foliage. The office of leaves is to ela¬ 
borate the crude sap and prepare it for use in 
the growth of the plant. The Broom-rapes do 
this by proxy—in other words, they steal the 
prepared sap from other plants, and have noth¬ 
ing else to do but grow and enjoy themselves 
at the expense of others. They belong to the 
class of root parasites, and a careful examina¬ 
tion will show that they are attached by the root 
to some other plant. The common representa¬ 
tive of this family in England is found as a para¬ 
site upon the Broom; and,having a thick fleshy 
stem somewhat like a turnip, or rapa, the name 
is thus derived, and is applied to a family con¬ 
sisting of several genera. The typical genus is 
the European Orobanche, hence botanists call 
has been extolled among the thousand remedies 
for cancer; hence we have the common name 
Cancer-root applied to at least three of our spe¬ 
cies. The most that can be said of them in this 
respect is that they have considerable astrin- 
gency, and may have been found useful in heal¬ 
ing those ulcers that are cancers in the eyes of 
the quack cancer-doctors. It is one of the many 
evils following in the train of quackery that' 
many of our pretty and innocent plants are 
obliged, as in this instance, to bear a repulsive 
common name. Nothing is more needed than 
a revision of the English names of our native 
plants. Our little Cancer-root bears the botan¬ 
ical name of Aphyllon unijlorum ; the generic 
name indicates that the plant is without foliage, 
and the specific one that it is one-flowered. It 
is found in woods throughout the United States. 
Its slender one-flowered stalks are four or five 
inches high and, -with the flowers, are brownish 
or yellowish. The other plant in the engraving 
is Conopholis Americana. The generic name is 
from two Greek -words meaning cone and scale. 
It also bears the unsavory name of Cancer-root, 
and another scarcely less unpleasant—Squaw- 
root. This has an equally wide range with the 
other, and is frequently found, especially in oak 
woods, thrusting its stems up from among the fall¬ 
en leaves. The stems grow in clusters some four 
or six inches high, even taller when old, and as 
thick as one’s thumb. The stem is completely 
