90 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



from one plant to another, the abundance of their seeds, and the double power they 

 possess of germinating either in the earth or in the capsule. M. Vaucher says, that 

 he cleared his fields from Dodder pretty well by perpetually breaking and dividing 

 their stalks with a rake. The best method of extirpating this troublesome plant, 

 however, appears to be to mow all portions of the field where tlie Dodder Lus been seen 

 to develop itself, and to do it before it can have produced seed. Each species of 

 Dodder attaches itself to its favourite crop, and no other will nourish it. Thus, if a 

 portion of land should be infested with the seeds of any species of Dodder, if 

 a crop of wheat or grass be sown on it, the seed will come up and perish, . not finding 

 any plants about it which would afibrd nourishment to it. 



SPECIES II.— CU SCUTA EUROPE A. Mnrr. 



Plate DCCCCXXYII. 



Rekh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVIII. Tab. MCCCXLII. Fig. 4. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2504. 



C. Europsea, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 180. 



C. major, D. C. Choi'^y in D. C. Prod. Vol. IX. p. 452. Reich, fit. 1. c. 



Stems mucli branched, red or greenish-yellow. Plowers sub- 

 sessile or shortly stalked, in rather compact sessile globular 

 heads.. Calyx funnel-shaped; segments fleshy only at the base, 

 semi-transparent, erect, ovate, blunt, spreading at the apex. 

 Corolla twice as long as the calyx ; tube cylindrical at the time of 

 flowering, afterwards inflated ; limb spreading, as long as the tube ; 

 lobes vbi*oad^-ovate, obtuse, spreading; scales thin, rather small, 

 adpressed to the tube, distant, with rounded spaces between them, 

 or sometimes absent Stamens included. Styles 2, filiform, di- 

 vergent, nearly as' long as the ovary ; stigma oblong-linear. Seeds 

 slightly roughened. 



Parasitical on hop, nettles, vetches, thistles, &c. Rather rare. 

 Sparingly distributed over England, from Somerset and Dorset to 

 York, and said to have occurred near Aberdeen. 



England, [Scotland]. Annual. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Stems much branched and matted. Elower-clusters quite 

 sessile, at first about the size of peas, afterwards considerably larger. 

 Elowers white tinged with red. This plant has the individual 

 flowers smaller, but the clusters larger than in C. Epilinum, the 

 corolla twice as long in proportion to the calyx, white tinged with 

 l)iuk, and the tube of the corolla is not inflated until tlie ovary 

 begins to swell. The flower-heads are also much closer together 

 and with the individual flowers shortly stalked. 



A form (?) (var. nefrens. Fries) destitute of scales in the corolla, 



