2859.
OROBANCHE barbata.
Ivy Broom-rape.
DIDYNAMIA Angiospermia.
Gen. Char. Calyx of two often bifid sepals, or rao-
nosepalous and 4-fid. Corolla ringent, 4-5-
cleft. A gland beneath the germen. Germen
1-celled, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, upon opposite
parietal placentas.
S pec. Char. Sepals with 1 prominent nerve and several
faint ones, ovate, with a long subulate point,
or bifid, as long as the bent tube of the corolla.
Lips of the corolla obscurely denticulated and
wavy; upper 2-lobed ; lower with 3 nearly equal
lobes, the central one longest. Stamens inserted
near the bottom of the tube, glabrous except at
the base within. Style glabrous, minutely downy
above.
Syn. Orobanche barbata. Poir. Enc. v. 4. 621.
Reichen. Iconog. t. 655. FI. Excurs. 353. Bab.
Prim. FI. Sam. 66.
O. Ilederae. Duby Bot. Gall. 350. Don Syst. 4.
629. I ;
HE present plant has been usually confounded with O.
minor, t. 422, which is as constantly parasitical upon Trifolium
pratense as this is upon Hedera Helix, a fact which
would suggesttheprobabilitythatthey ought to be separated
even if the structural characters were less apparent; for it
is well known that the different species of Orobanche, although
they may grow indifferently upon plants included
in the same genus, rarely inhabit separate genera, and
never, I believe, stray from the natural order in which their