This is one of the most anomalous and singular of the British plants.. I t grows m woods, principally of Pine,
in various parts of the kingdom, and is generally supposed to be parasitic* on the roots of other plants. In ge.
neral aspect it approaches nearer to Orobanche than to any thing else, but is totally different in the structure pf
its fructification The young plants have a graceful appearance from the circumstance of their drooping heads,
which become quite erect as the flowers advance. There is a very peculiar smell arising from every part of the
herb, which much resembles that of the primrose, but is not altogether so agreeable; partaking also, as it appears
to me, of the odour o f bees-wax. . While, drying, this scent is much more powerful, and it is retained even when
^Almost every author tiiat I have consulted ascribes a calyx to the blossom of the Monotropa, in addition to the
five-cleft or five-petaled corolla (for it is difficult to determine which); but to me what is so called appears to be I
nothin»' but bracteee or scales, alternating upon the footstalk of the flowers as they do upon the stem. Still more
extraordinary does it seem, that Sir James Smith should describe the flower as having no calyx, but as composed
o f ten petals, of which the five outermost are copcave, and honey-bearing at the base. 1 his was not the case in
m^ h e structure of the anthers comes nearest that perhaps of thePei'Sonatce, having only One cell; but in this
case they have two decided valves, one smaller than the other. The capsule and the seeds much resemble those
of Pvrola, in which genus likewise there are scales upon the stalks ; and the younger Grertner first, I believe,
hinted at this affinity. Nuttall, in his American Flora, lately published has gone further, and proposed an
order or a section of Ericece, to be called Monotropea. In this he has, besides oui plant, which he calls Hy-
popithys Europea, included two other genera, and thus defines the family: “ Calyx superior, five-parted, persistent,
sometimes wanting, or in the form of irregular bracteas. Corolla pengynous monopetalous, persistent, mostly
divided to the base, so as to appear almost polypetalous. Stamina definite, distinct, double the number of the
petals, and arising from their base.' Anthers eccentrically peltate, horizontal, adnate to the filaments, mostly one-
celled, opening variously, not by terminal pores. Germen superior, style one, stigma simple, discoid. Fruit capsular,
superior? five-celled, five-valved; septa medial, coalescing in the axis towards the base; receptacle five-lobed,
pendulous. Seeds numerous and very minute, nearly spherical, situated towards the centre of a samaroid, attenuated,
membranaceous episperm, sometimes alated at its summit. Plants, after the manner of Orobanche, destitute
of leaves and verdure; stems simple, scapiform, squamose, one- or many-flowered.
• tut o whn the snecimens here figured in July 1819, observes," The Monotropa grows in great abundance in thé neighthat
they are not more parasitical ,kem Tn one or two of the larger ones, I observed a great similarity with the