SOME SUMMER FLOWERS 



this enemy. The Eriogonum has been able, as you see, to 

 send out only a small stunted flower cluster, but the other 

 plant is in full flower ; in fact it seems to consist only of 

 flowers and slender stems. The stems are bright yellow or 

 orange, so the plant is often called gold-thread, but its best- 

 known common name is dodder. Perhaps you have heard 

 it called love-vine, but it must have been an ill-natured per- 

 son who gave it this name, for it is really a plant of the very 

 worst character. Try to unwind it from its victim, and you 

 will see that the little projections that look like caterpillar's 

 legs are really suckers that have pierced down into the 

 tissue of the host plant, and are absorbing the food that this 

 plant has made, just as the root-hairs of honest plants absorb 

 from the soil their material for food-making. So you can 

 think why this plant has no ordinary roots and leaves and 

 no green color. The dodder attacks many other plants 

 besides this Eriogonum, as you probably know ; it some- 

 times nearly destroys fields of alfalfa. 



Now this thieving dodder really belongs to a generally 

 honest family of high rank, to the same family as the morn- 

 ing-glory, as you can see if you compare the parts of the 

 flowers. The little flowers of the dodder make friends 

 with the bees, and mature many tiny seeds, which are scat- 

 tered in an interesting way. And how do you suppose the 

 dodder seedlings get a start in the world ? The seeds ger- 

 minate on the moist ground, but later than most other 

 seeds, so that there are young plants and new shoots all 

 about them before they sprout at all. The baby plant in 

 the dodder seed, like the older plant, has neither true leaves 

 nor root; it is simply a little stem. One end of the tiny 

 stem, as it leaves the seed coat, glues itself to the soil, but 

 it never sends down roots,. nor does it absorb moisture from 

 the soil. The free end goes slowly sweeping round and 

 round, like the tips of morning-glory stems, seeking some- 

 thing to twine about. If it does not succeed before it has 

 13 193 



