Mr. Ch. C. Babington on some species of Cuscuta. 251 



quainted with the usual structure of the flowers of Cuscuta to the 

 opinion^ that five broad, blunt, deeply bifid processes were placed 

 alternately with the stamens and opposite to the segments of the 

 corolla ; or in other words, that a whorl of organs existed exactly 

 in the position which would be occupied by an internal whorl of 

 stamens ; and, if given to theorizing, he would at once decide that 

 these organs were abortive and transformed stamens, and that in 

 its normal condition Cuscuta was provided with two whorls of 

 stamens, of which the outer one alone attained its perfect deve- 

 lopment. 



It ought however to be stated, that even in C. approximata the 

 line of separation between the corona and the corolla rises higher 

 up the latter just under each stamen, as is the case in the other 

 species. In each of my sketches I have endeavoured to represent 

 the place of this separation by a line intervening between the 

 upper edge of the corona and the base of the corolla ; but it is 

 necessary to add, that the exact point at which the free corona 

 begins is often determinable with considerable difiiculty, owing to 

 its extreme thinness and transparency. It is possible therefore 

 that the course of this line may not be found to be precisely as I 

 have represented it ; indeed in C, europcea it is little more than 

 conjectural. 



From this it will be justly deduced, that I have come to the 

 conclusion that the scales are indeed abortive stamens ; and I 

 would endeavour to explain their peculiar position by supposing 

 that each scale (as seen in C. Epithymum for example, fig. 1) is 

 formed of two totally distinct parts, which, from some unknown 

 cause, have become closely connected together by their edges, so 

 as apparently to form but one organ situated beneath the stamen, 

 whilst in reality the abortive stamen is represented by a deeply 

 bifid membrane, each lobe of which is more or less closely sol- 

 dered to the neighbouring lobe of the next abortive stamen ; thus 

 forming a whorl of scales, placed opposite to the perfect stamens, 

 which appear to be simple, but are in reality composed of two 

 parts. That this theory is not so wild as it might at first appear 

 to be, is shown by the existence of a similar structure in the stig- 

 matic rays of the Papaveracece, as has been proved by Mr. Robert 

 Brown, and also, from independent observations, by Mr. Warren 

 Howell. Let it however be remembered that I only put this 

 theoretical explanation forward for the consideration of botanists, 

 being well aware that much more extended observation is requi- 

 site before it can be considered as an established fact. 



I now proceed to characterize the species to which the draw- 

 ings refer, and as they all have filiform leafless stems and germi- 

 nate in the ground, but afterwards become wholly parasitical, I 



