NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 265 



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

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

 oushes, 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 transverse division all round near the bc.se, 

 leaving the partition In hind. Natiu(S of Europe ; fl^ early summer. 



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

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

 5 parted. 



2. Stigmas capitals : pod* bursting irn-gularly if at all : ici'd species of the 

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



* Flowers, in rather loose clusters, mostly slun-t-pedicclled, the scaly bracts few and 



scattered : calyx 4 - 5-c/efl. 



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



C. tenu.ifl.6ra. 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. inflexa. 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 ca'yx-lobes. 



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

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



-*-* Corolla bell-shaped, remaining at the basf of the ripe pod. 



C. arvensis. 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 longer than the stamens. 



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 ; ] ud large, depressed, greenish-yellow. 



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

 herbs and low shrubs in wet places ; beli-shapcd corolla with tube usually 

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

 large and copiously fringed. 



# # Floin-rs stssi/e in compact mostly continuous clusters, ma Icing large bunches or 



close math d coils, irhcn old /v'.sv mbling pieces of rope twisted around the stems 

 of coarse hu-lis or shrubs: calyx ofs<prate sepals surrounded by similar 

 cn>n'(bd bracts : remains of i -e 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 Compo^itae, from Ohio 

 W. & S. \\ . : the numerous ob'ong scarious bracts closely imbricated with 

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



84. SOLANACE^I, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



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

 monly narcotic-poisonous, colorless juice), alternate leaves (but apt 

 to be in pairs and unequal), r. gular liowers with the parts usually 

 in fives, but the ovary mostly 2-celled, the many-.^eded placentae 

 in the axis. The seeds have a slender u-ually curved embryo in 

 fleshy albumen. (Lessons, p. 15, fig. 34, 35.) The order runs.on 

 the OIK^ hand into ScrophulariaceaB, which a few species approach 

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

 the lobes. On the other hand the Nolami group is appended, which 

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



