ORGANOTOPIC PLANTS. 
I°5 
Organotopic Plants. III. 
BY FREDERICK W. BATCHFFDFR. 
A true parasite draws its nourishment wholly from the 
plant to which it has attached itself, giving no return ex¬ 
cept the ungrateful one of injuring or killing its host. A 
true saprophyte is supposed to live wholly upon humus or 
decayed vegetable matter. A true symbiot is a plant which 
has formed a partnership with another plant or plants; a 
partnership of such a nature that the benefits are mutual. 
Now it so happens that there is a striking resemblance in 
habit between certain members of these three classes of or¬ 
ganotopic or dependent plants. Certain root-parasites, cer¬ 
tain saprophytes, and certain symbiots are, in fact, so sim¬ 
ilar in appearance that it is not strange they have until 
lately been placed in the same catego^. Superficially, 
beech drops and coral root and Indian pipe appear to be near¬ 
ly identical in habit. It has remained for that little detec¬ 
tive, the microscope, to demonstrate that they are entirely 
different in their relations to the plant world and in their 
mode of obtaining subsistence. The first, beech drops, is a 
true parasite, and, like the lower fungi, subsists entirely 
upon its host; the second, coral-root, so far as present know¬ 
ledge goes, lives, like the fleshy fungi, on decayed vege¬ 
table matter, and may therefore be. considered a true sapro¬ 
phyte ; the third, Indian pipe, until recently regarded as 
truly parasitic in its mode of living, has been proved to be 
a true symbiot. If parasitic at all, Indian pipe should be a 
root-parasite, but it has been proved that its roots have no 
connection whatever with the roots of other plants. Care¬ 
ful investigation has also shown conclusively that it does 
not subsist on decomposed vegetable matter ; therefore, it 
cannot be a saprophyte. How then does it beg, borrow or 
steal its nourishment ? It has been demonstrated that In- 
