NORTH AMERICAN CUSCUTINEA. 195 
ent appearance, when in flower or fruit. The stem, which 
Connects the several clusters of flowers, having then disap- 
peared, the latter only remain, consisting of innumerable 
crowded sessile flowers and scariose scales, spirally and most 
tightly coiled (with one or several turns) round the stems of 
the supporting plant, which, at a distance, looks as if a rope 
Were twisted round it. The flowers are so crowded that 
many become abortive and, as it were, strangled, presenting 
nothing but a bunch of scales; while others, which seem 
perfect, do not ripen their seed. 
The principal difference between Lepidanche and Cuscuta 
consists in the calyx, which is not monosepalous but com- 
posed of numerous imbricated scales, of which the 2 or 5 
that are exterior (being much smaller) may be regarded as 
bracts, while the 10 inner, (nearly alike in size and shape, 
crenulated and with reflexed or squarrose summits,) appear 
to constitute the proper calyx. The corolla and stamens, 
with their scales, are entirely similar to the corresponding 
organs in Cuscuta : so is the ovary; but the unequal styles 
are generally longer in proportion, and the stylopodium is as 
€ as the ovary proper, or even larger. The ovary is 
2-celled and 4-ovulate; but I have never seen more than 
2 seeds, separated by an incomplete dissepiment; and fre- 
quently only a single seed ripens. 3 
L. Compositarum. (Tan. III. f. 8.) iud 
~ Var. a. Solidaginis; flowers smaller, lobes of the limb 
 Teflexed, stylopodium half as large as the ovary. — 1 
_ Var. 8. Helianthi ; flowers larger, lobes of the limb spread- 
. . V8; scales of the filaments united with one another, forming 
E a 5-lobed crown in the tube ; stylopodium larger than the 
i 7 : PAY, re 
— This singular plant appears confined to the western prairies ; 
35, near St, Louis* (on Solidago and Vernonia) and at New 
Dm Certainly the Cuscuta Americana (Hooker, Comp. fo Bot. Mag. v. ls 
_ 9: 173) found by Drummond at St. Louis, and its aspect thus described :— 
. “Some specimens have all the flowers abortive and apparently turned to 
Scales, which are densely crowded, and form a thick wreath, of a pale 
“aw colour, round the branch of some shrub." - eo 
