142 CUSCUTA GRONOVII. COMMON AMERICAN DODDER. 



anything but the selfish attachment which the Dodder has for other 

 plants, which is very different from anything worth associating 

 with love. The French emblematists take a very different view 

 of it. They have dedicated it to "meanness," because says an 

 anonymous writer, " as soon as its stalk can meet with that of 

 another plant it fattens on it ; then, like a vile parasite, this plant 

 absorbs all the juice of its support, and kills it." Dr. Erasmus 

 Darwin, whose curious poem, "The Loves of the Plants," issued 

 in the beginning of the present century, still survives in public 

 interest, took a very mercenary view of the love shown by the 

 Dodder : 



" , the fair Cnsaita, please 



Willi labored elegance, and studied ease ; 



In the meek garb of modest worth disguised, 



The eye averted, and the smile chastised, 



With sly approach they spread their dangerous charms, 



And round their victims wind their wiry arms. 



So l)y Scamander when Laocoon stood, 



Where Troy's proud turrets glittered in the flood, 



Two serpent forms incumbent on the main. 



Ring above ring, in many a tangled fold. 



Close and more close their writhing limbs surround. 



And fix with foamy teeth the envenomed wound." 



But setting aside all that is ideal we may say that the plant 

 is really a parasite, though unlike many parasitic plants it com- 

 mences life in a creditable way ; for the seed germinates in the 

 ground instead of on other plants, and it is not until the growing 

 stem has found some other kind to cling to, that it severs its 

 connection with the earth which bore it, and lives wholly on the 

 victim it has caught. In the case we illustrate it has seized the 

 common Blackberry, Rubus villosiis, and the little suckling 

 roodets which it throws out for its parasitic purposes are shown 

 by our ardst on the Dodder stem just above Fig. 4. It is not 

 particular what kind of plant it attaches itself to; but the 

 seed of each species requires its own special condidons for 

 trermination, some likino- the full licyht and dry soil, and others 

 rather damp soil and some shade ; and in this latter class our 



