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5-parted into oblong-ovate lobes, filiform exserted filaments, and 2-celled 
4-ovuled ovary often becoming by abortion a 1-seeded pod. 
1. C. Cretica L., var. Truxillensis Choisy, Much branched from a woody base, 
very leafy: leaves from oblong-ovate to lanceolate, sessile, 4 to 8 mm, or more long: 
flowers subsessile or short-pediceled in the upper axils, or the upper crowded as if in 
a leafy-bracteate spike: corolla white, 4 to 6 mm. long: pod 4 to 6 mm. long.—On or 
near the seashore or in saline soil, southern Texas. 
8. CUSCUTA Tourn. (DODDER.) 
Leafless annual parasitic herbs, with thread-like yellowish or reddish 
stems bearing a few minute scales in place of leaves and twining on 
herbs or shrubs to which they adhere by means of suckers, sinall 
cymose-clustered mostly white flowers, calyx 5 (rarely 4)-cleft or of 
5 sepals, globular-urn-shaped (or bell-shaped or short-tubular) corolla 
with 5 or 4-cleft spreading border, stamens with a scale-like often 
fringed appendage at base, 2-celled 4-ovuled ovary with distinct (rarely 
united) styles, and mostly 4-seeded pod.—In ours the stigmas are capi- 
tate. 
* Styles distinct, more or less unequal. 
+ Capsule indehiscent. 
++ Calyx gamosepalous, 
= Orary and pod depressed-qlobose, 
a, Flowers in dense or globular clusters : styles mostly shorter than the ovary. 
1. C. obtusiflora HBK., var. glandulosa Mngelm. Stems orange-colored, coarse: 
flowers 2 to 2.5 mm. long, all parts dotted: lobes of calyx and corolla rounded, as 
long as tube: scales large, equaling or exceeding the tube, deeply fringed.—Wet 
places, extending from Gulf States into Texas. On Polygonum, ete. 
2, C. arvensis Beyrich. Stems pale and slender, low: flowers smaller, scarecly 
2 mm. long: ealyx-lobes obtuse, mostly very broad: those of corolla acuminate, 
longer than tube, with inflexed points: scales large, decply fringed,—Rather dry 
soil, on various low plants, throughout Texas, 
b. Flowers in paniculate often compound cymes: styles slender, mostly longer than the 
orary. 
3. C. tenuiflora Engelm. Stems coarse and yellow: flowers (2mm. or less long) on 
short thick pedicels, often 4-merous: lobes of calyx and corolla oblong, obtuse; lat- 
ter mostly shorter than the slender deeply campanulate tube: scales shorter than 
tube, fringed: marcescent corolla capping the large pod.—On tall herbs or shrubs, 
in wet places, extending fromthe Northern States into Texas. 
= = Ovary and pod pointed; the latter enveioped or capped by the marcescent corolla. 
a. Acute tips of corolla lobes infleced or corniculate. 
4, C. decora Choisy. Stems coarse: flowers fleshy and more or less papillose: 
calyx-lobes triangular, acute: those of the broadly campanulate corolla ovate-lan- 
ceolate, minutely crenulate, spreading: scales large, deeply fringed: pod enveloped 
by remains of corolla: seeds usually 4.—Throughout the United States. Also ex- 
teuding from the north, in wet prairies, on herbs and low shrubs, principally Lequ- 
minose and Composite, is var. PULCHERRIMA Engelm., the larger form, with coarser 
stems, conspicuous flowers 3 to 5mm. long and wide, and anthers and stigmas yel- 
low or deep purple. Confined to Texas is var, INDECORA Engelin,, with lower more 
slender stems, smaller flowers in looser paniculate clusters and often warty or papil- 
lose-hispid. 
