124 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



XIII. 



DODDER AND BROOMRAPE. 



THIS afternoon, strolling through the under- 

 cliff, I have come across two quaint and rather 

 uncommon flowers among the straggling 

 brushwood. One of them is growing like a 

 creeper around the branches of this over- 

 blown gorse-bush. It is the lesser dodder, 

 a pretty clustering mass of tiny pale pink 

 convolvulus blossoms. The stem consists of 

 a long red thread, twining round and round 

 the gorse, and bursting out here and there 

 into thick bundles of beautiful bell-shaped 

 flowers. But where are the leaves ? You 

 may trace the red threads through their 

 labyrinthine windings up and down the sup- 

 porting gorse-branches all in vain : there is 

 not a leaf to be seen. As a matter of fact, 



