CONVOLVULUS CON.VOLVULACE JS 495 



CU SCUTA 



of the narrower inner ones : corolla 12-18 lines broad, yellowish : stigmas 

 oblong. On dry prairies, southern Oregon to California. 



* * * Stigma filiform or narrowly linear: no bracts at or near the 

 base of the calyx. 



C. ABVENSIS L. Sp. 153. Glabrous or nearly so ; stems trailing or de- 

 cumbent, very slender, 1-2^ feet long, simple or branched : leaves slender- 

 petioled, ovate or oblong, entire, obtusish and mucronulate or acutish at 

 the apex, sagittate or somewhat hastate at the base, 1-2 lines long, the 

 basal lobes spreading, acute: peduncles 1-4-flowered (commonly 2-flower- 

 ed), shorter than the leaves, 1-S-bracted at the summit, usually with an- 

 other bract on one of the pedicels : sepals oblong, obtuse, 1} lines long : 

 corolla pink to white, 8-12 lines broad. In fields and waste places. Nat- 

 uralized from Europe. 



Tribe 2 Cuscutese B & H. Gen. ii y 881 Leafless parasitic red 

 or yellow twining herbs without foliage or green color. Corolla imbri- 

 cated in the bud, appendaged below the stamens. Ovary entire. 



2 CUSCUTA Tourn. L. Gen. n. 170. 



Parasitic herbs, destitute of all green color and of foliage, except 

 scale-like bracts, and small whitish flowers in cymose clusters. 

 Calyx 5- (rarely 4-) parted or cleft. Corolla from campanulate 

 or somewhat urceolate to short-tubular, with the mostly spreading 

 lobes between convolute and imbricate in the bud, not plicate, 

 marcescent persistent, either at the base or summit of the capsule. 

 Stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla above as many scale- 

 like lacerate appendages (these rarely absent). Ovary globular, 

 2-celled and 4 ovuled. Styles distinct or rarely united, persistent: 

 stigmas globose, or in foreign species filiform. Capsule 1-4-seeded, 

 circurnscissile or transversely bursting, or indehiscent. Seeds 

 large, globular, or angled by mutual pressure. Embryo filiform, 

 spirally coiled in firm-fleshy albumen, wholly destitute of co- 

 tyledons, but the apex ol the plumule often beariug a few alternate 

 scales. Seeds germinating in the ground but not rooting in it, 

 developing into filiform branching stems which twine dextrorsely 

 upon herbs or shrubs and becoming parasitic by means of suckers 

 which penetrate the bark in contact, the base soon dying. 



C. arvensis Beyrich. Stems pale yellow, slender, low: flowers barely 

 a line long, nearly sessile, in small dense clusters : calyx gamosepalous, 

 with obtuse mostly broad lobes : corolla nearly campanulate, 5-lobed, the 

 lobes acute or acuminate, as long as the tube ; its scales large, ovate, as 

 long as or longer than the tube, densely fringed all around with short ir- 

 regular processes: style shorter than the ovary: stigmas capitate: capsule 

 depressed-globose, indehiscent, the withering corolJa and usually the sta- 

 mens persistent at its base. On various low plants, Brit. Columbia to 

 California and across the Continent.. 



C. Cephalanthi Engelm. Am. Journ. Sci. xxxxiii, 336. Stems coarse 

 and yellow, usually rather high-climbing: flowers a line or less long, on 

 short thick pedicels,, often 4-merous: calyx-lobes ovate, obtuse, shorter 

 than the corolla-tube : corolla cylindric-campanulate, its lobes ovate, ob- 

 tuse and rounded, .spreading, shorter than the tube : scales shorter than the 

 tube, fringed: style slender, as long or longer than the ovary: capsule 



