NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 265 



7. CtJSCUTA, DODDER. (Old name, of uncertain derivation.) Plants 

 resemble thioads of yarn, yellowish or reddish, .spreading over herbs and low 

 bushes, coiling around their branches, which they adhere to and rob of their 

 juices. Flowers small, mostly white, clustered. 



§ 1. Sti(pnas slender ; pod opening by a transverse division all round near the base, 

 Imving the partition behind. Natives of Europe : Jf. earli/ summer. 



C. Epilinum, Flax Dodder. Growing on flax, which it injures ; occa- 

 sionally Ibund iu our fiax-fields ; tlowers globular, in scattered heads ; corolla 

 5-parted. (j) 



§ 2. Sticjmas capitate : pods burstinf) imgularly if at all : wild species of the 

 country, mostly in rich or low ground : Jl. summer and autumn. Q) 



* Flowers in rather loose clusters, jnostty short-pedicelled, the scaly bracts few and 



scattered : calyx 4 - 5-cle/t. 

 -t- Corolla with cylindrical tube, in fuit covering the top of the pod. 



C. tenuifl6ra. On shrubs and tall herbs from N. Jersey W. & S., in 

 swamps : pale ; tube of the corolla twice the length of its ovate acute spreading 

 lobes and of the ovate bhmt calyx-lobes. 



C. inflexa. On shrubs and tall herbs in prairies and barrens W. & S. : 

 corolla fleshy, mostly 4-cleft, its tube no longer than the ovate acutish crenulate 

 erect or inflexed lobes of the corolla and the acute keeled calyx-lobes. 



C. decora. Wet prairies S. W. : with larger flowers, the corolla broadly 

 bell-shaped, its 5 lobes lance-ovate and acute. 



••--<- Corolla bell-shaped, remaining at the base of (he ripe pod. 



C. arv6nsis. On low herbs, in fields and barrens from New York to 111. 

 & S. W. : flowers earliest (June, July) and smallest ; tube of corolla shorter than 

 its 5 lanceolate pointed spreading lobes, much longer than the stamens. 



C. chloroearpa. On low herbs, in wet soil, from Delaware W. & S.W. : 

 orange-colored ; open bell-shaped corolla with lobes about the length of the 

 mostly 4 acute lobes and the stamens ; pod large, depressed, grecni'ih-yellow. 



C. Gronbvii. The commonest E. & W. and the only one N. E. ; on coarse 

 herbs and low shrubs in wet places ; bcli-shapcd corolla with tube usually 

 longer than its 5 (rarely 4) ovate blunt spreading lobes; its internal scales 

 large and copiously fringed. 



* * Flowers sessile in compact mostly continjwus clusters, mailing large bunches or 



close mattid coils, johen old resembling pieces of rope twisted around the stems 

 of coarse herbs or .<ihrubs : calyx of separate sepals surruundid by similar 

 crowded bracts : remains of (he corolla borne on the top of the ripe pod. 

 C. COmpacta. On .shrubs, from N. York S. & W. : bracts (3-5) and 

 sepals round and appressed ; tube of corolla cylindrical. 



C. glomer^ta. On Golden rods and other coarse Compositas, from Ohio 

 W. & S. VV. ; the numerous oblong scarious bracts closely imbricated with 

 recurving tips ; sepals similar, shorter than the cylindraceous tube of the corolla. 



84. SOLANACEJE, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



Plants with rank-scented herbaa:e (this and the fruit more com- 

 monly narcotic-poisonous, colorless juice), alternate leaves (but apt 

 to be in i»airs and unequal), rcjjular flowers with the parts usually 

 in five.s, but the ovary mostly 2-celled, the many-seeded placentaj 

 in tlie axi.s. The seeds have a slender usually curved embryo in 

 fleshy albumen. (Lessons, p. 15, fig. 34, 35.) The order runs on 

 the one hand into Scrophulariuceas, which a fiew species approach 

 in a somewhat irregular corolla, but their stamens are as many as 

 the lolx's. On the other hand the Nolana group is appended, which 

 differs from all in its separate ovaries around a common style. 



