WHITE 



that their common name seems fairly appropriate. I have heard 

 unbotanical people call them " white closed gentians." 



COMMON DODDER. LOVE VINE. 



Cuscuta Gronovii. Convolvulus Family. 



Stems. Yellow or reddish ; thread-like ; twining ; leafless. Flowers. 

 White ; in close clusters. Calyx. Five-cleft. Corolla. With five 

 spreading lobes. Stamens. Five. Pistil. One, with two styles. 



Late in the summer perhaps we are tempted deep into some 

 thicket by the jasmine-scented heads of the button-bush or the 

 fragrant spikes of the Clethra, and note for the first time the tan- 

 gled golden threads and close white flower-clusters of the dodder. 

 If we try to trace to their source these twisted stems, which the 

 Creoles know as ''angels' hair," we discover that they are 

 fastened to the bark of the shrub or plant about which they are 

 twining by means of small suckers ; but nowhere can we find 

 any connection with the earth, all their nourishment being ex- 

 tracted from the plant to which they are adhering. Originally 

 this curious herb sprang from the ground which succored it un- 

 til it succeeded in attaching itself to some plant ; having accom- 

 plished this it severed all connection with mother-earth by the 

 withering away or snapping off of the stem below. 



The flax-dodder, C. Epilinum, is a very injurious plant in 

 European flax-fields. It has been sparingly introduced into this 

 country with flax-seed. 



THORN-APPLE. JAMESTOWN WEED. 



Datura Stramonium. Nightshade Family 



Stem. Smooth and branching. Leaves. Ovate ; wavy toothed or 

 angled. Flowers. White; large and showy ; on short flower-stalks from 

 the forks of the branching stem. Calyx. Five-toothed. Corolla. Fun- 

 nel-form ; the border five-toothed. Stamens. Five. Pistils. One. Fruit. 

 Green ; globular ; prickly. 



The showy white flowers of the thorn-apple are found in 

 waste places during the summer and autumn, a heap of rubbish 



98 



