350 CONVOLVULACEJS. (CONVOLVULUS FAMILY.) 
Suborder II. CUSCUTINEiE. The Dodder Family. 
3. CUSCUTA, Tourn. Dodder. 
Calyx 5- (rarely 4-) cleft, or of 5 sepals. Corolla globular-urn¬ 
shaped, bell-shaped, or somewhat tubular, the spreading border 5- 
(rarely 4-) cleft. Stamens attached to the tube of the corolla, 
furnished with a scale-like often fringed appendage at their base. 
Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled : styles distinct (or rarely united). Pod 
mostly 4-seeded. Embryo thread-shaped, spirally coiled in the 
rather fleshy albumen, entirely destitute of cotyledons ! — Leafless 
herbs, chiefly annuals, yellowish or reddish in color, with thread¬ 
like stems, bearing a few minute scales in place of leaves, rising 
from the soil in germination, soon becoming entirely parasitic on 
the bark of herbs and shrubs over which they twine, and to which 
they adhere by means of papillae developed on the surface in con¬ 
tact. Flowers small, cymose-clustered, mostly white. (Name 
of uncertain, supposed to be of Arabic, derivation.) — A new and 
complete monograph of this genus may soon be expected from Dr- 
Engelmann. 
§ 1. Stigmas elongated: pod opening regularly around near the hase by 
circumcissile dehiscence , leaving the partition behind. (Natives of 
the Old World.) 
1. CL Epiliiium, Weihe. (Flax Dodder.) Stems very 
slender ; flowers in small and dense scattered heads; corolla globular 
cylindrical, scarcely exceeding the 5-parted calyx, left surrounding j| 
the base of the pod in fruit; scales small; styles at first upright, not 
longer than the ovary. —In Flax-fields, where it is sometimes very 
injurious: sparingly introduced with flax-seed into the Northern States. I 
June. 
§ 2. Stigmas capitate : pods indehiscent , rarely bursting irregularly- 
* Ovary depressed-globular, not pointed: pod thin and membranous , 
greenish or yelloicish. 
2. C. chlorocarpa, Engelra. Low, orange-colored; BovferS 
almost sessile, clustered; corolla mostly 4-cleft, open-bell-shape , 
tube about the length of the acute lobes and calyx-teeth , remaining per¬ 
sistent around the base of the depressed pod, the scales cut-fringed or 
cleft (rather small); stamens as long as the lobes. (C. Polygon^** 1 
Eng elm.) — Low grounds, covering Polygona and other herbs, UW 
and westward. 
3. C. tenuiflora, Engelm. Much branched, twining high, 
pale-colored; flowers at length peduncled and in rather loose cyme , 
