NORTH AMERICAN CUSCUTINEJE. 189 
ing the same relation to that family as Monotropee does to Py- 
rolacee, and Orobanchee to Antirrhinee ; these plants, which 
may be likened to Phanerogamous Fungi, being all destitute 
of verdure and of proper leaves (bearing scales, ia place of 
the latter, but never leafless, in the full meaning of the 
term); while, in the structure of their flowers, they agree 
with plants of the highest organization. They are all para- 
Sitic on other vegetables; the Cuscutinee on their stems; 
most Orobanchee on their roots; and the Monotropee on their 
mouldering remains: hence they are obviously analogous to 
the Class Entozoa of the animal kingdom, and may be termed 
 Epiphyta, growing on plants. The Cuscutinee are distinguish- 
able from other Epiphyta by their growing upon and twining 
around the stems (and occasionally the foliage of) other 
Vegetables, as well as by their large seeds, resembling those of 
Convolvulus, and presenting a long slender embryo which is 
‘Spirally coiled round a mass of mucilaginous albumen. Mo- 
‘notropee and Orobanchee have extremely minute seeds, in 
Some respects similar to the spores of Acotyledonous plants. 
— The seeds of Cuscutinee germinate in the ground; but 
quickly finding the plants round which they twine, (turning 
Constantly to the left like all Convolvulacee.) they strike their 
Papillose roots into the epidermis of the stem, from whence 
they subsequently derive nutriment; their own original 
Stems soon withering away, so that the plant has no longer 
any direct communication with the earth. — Sas 
In the Epiphyta, each species is, for the most part, re- 
stricted to the same or similar plants. This is most con- 
- Stantly the case in the Orobanchee, where the germinating 
embryo fixes itself at once upon its favourite plant; but, in 
| fa, where the seed germinates in the earth, and the 
Stem afterwards lays hold of that individual which affords it 
nutriment, it frequently twines round all the plants in its 
neighbourhood and is capable of extracting from them its 
"000. Some species, however, are more constant in their 
 Predilections than others; as, for example, the European: 
| Cuscuta Epilinum never grows on any plant but Flax ; and our : 
.. VOL, 11, Q — 
