NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 265 



7. CtJSCTJTA, DODDER. (Old name, of uncertain derivation.) Plants 

 resemble threads of yarn, yellowish or reddish, spreading 1 over herhs and low 

 bushes, coiling around their branches, which they adhere to and rob of their 

 juices. Flowers small, mostly white, clustered. 



1. Stigmas slender ; pod opening by a transit r.sc cfirision all round near the base, 

 It di'ing the partition behind. N<iiiv<s of Kurope : fl. early summer . 



C. Epiiinum, FLAX DODDER. Growing on flax, which it injures ; occa- 

 sionally found in our flax-fields ; flowers globular, in scattered heads ; corolla 

 5-parted. ^ 



2. Stigma* capitate : pods bursting imgularly if at all : wild species of the 

 country, mosily in rich or low ground : fl. summer and autumn. 



* Flowers in rather loose clusters, mostly short-pedicel led, the scaly bracts few and 

 scattered : calyx 4 - 5-clcfl. 



*- Corolla with cylindrical tube, in fruit covering the top of the pod. 



C. tenuifldra. On shrubs and tall herbs from N. Jersey W. & S., in 

 swamps : pale ; tube of the corolla twice the length of its ovate acute spreading 

 lobes and of the ovate blunt calyx-lobes. 



C. infldxa. On shrubs and tall herbs in prairies and barrens W. & S. : 

 corolla fleshy, mostly 4-cleft, its tube no longer than the ovate acutish crenulate 

 erect or inflexed lobes of the corolla and the acute keeled calyx-lobes. 



C. decora. Wet prairies S. W. : with larger flowers, the corolla broadly 

 bell-shaped, its 5 lobes lance-ovate and acute. 



-t--t- Corolla bell-shaped, remaining at the base of the ripe pod. 



C. arv^nsis. On low herbs, in fields and barrens from New York to 111. 

 & S. W. : flowers earliest (June, July) and smallest ; tube of corolla shorter than 

 its 5 lanceolate pointed spreading lobes, much 'onger than the stamen*. 



C. Chlorocarpa. On low herbs, in wet soil, from Delaware W. & S.W. : 

 Orange-colored ; open bell -shaped corolla with lobes about the length of the 

 mostly 4 acute lobes and the stamens ; j:od large, depressed, greenish-yellow. 



C. Gronbvii. The commonest E. & W. and the only one N. E. ; on coarse 

 herbs and low shrubs in wet places; bcii-shaj ed corolla with tube usually 

 longer than its 5 (rarely 4) ovate blunt spreading lobes; its internal scales 

 large and copiously fringed. 



* * Flowers sessi/e in compact mostly continuous clusters, making large bunches or 



close malted coils, when old resembling piects of rope twisted uruiina the stems 

 of coarse herbs or shrubs: calyx of sipnnde sepals surrounded by similar 

 crowded bracts : remains of the corolla borne on the top of the ripe pod. 

 C. COmpacta. On shrubs, from N. York S. & W. : bracts (3-5) and 

 sepals round and appressed; tube of corolla cylindrical. 



C. glomerata. On Golden rods and other coarse Composite, from Ohio 

 W. & S. W. : the numerous oblong scarious bracts closely imbricated with 

 recurving tips ; sepals similar, shorter than the cylindraceous tube of the corolla. 



84. SOLANACE^J, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



Plants with rank-scented herbage (this and the fruit more com- 

 monly narcotic-poisonous, colorless juice), alternate leaves (l>ut apt 

 to be in pairs and unequal), regular liowers with the parts usually 

 in fives, but the ovary mo.-tly 2-celled, the many-seeded placentas 

 in the axis. The seeds have a slender uu:iHy curved embryo in 

 fleshy albumen. (Lessons, p. 15, lig. 34, of).) The order runs on 

 the one hand into ScrophulariaceaV, which a few species approach 

 in a somewhat irregular corolla, but their stamens are as many as 

 "the lobes. On the other hand the Nolana group is appended, which 

 differs from all in its separate ovaries around a common style. 



