Sflfi CONVOLVUIACE^. (CONVOLVULUS FAMILY.) 



7. CUSCUTA, Tourn. DODDER. 



Cal}x 5- (rarely 4-) cleft, or of 5 sepals. Corolla globular-urn-shaped, bell- 

 shaped, or somewhat tubular, the spreading border 5- (rarely 4-) cleft. Stamens 

 furnished with a scale-like often fringed appendage at their base. Ovary 2- 

 celled, 4-ovuled : styles distinct, or rarely united. Pod mostly 4-sceded. Em- 

 bryo thread-shaped, spirally coiled in the rather fleshy albumen, destitute of 

 cotyledons ! sometimes with a few alternate scales (belonging to the plumule 1 ?) : 

 germination occurring in the soil. Leafless herbs, chiefly annuals, yellowish 

 or reddish in color, with thread-like stems, bearing a few minute scales in place 

 of leaves ; on rising from the ground becoming entirely parasitic on the bark jf 

 herbs and shrubs over which they twine, and to which they adhere by means of 

 papilla? developed on the surface in contact. Flowers small, cymosc-clustered, 

 mostly white. (Name of uncertain, supposed to be of Arabic, derivation.) 



The following account of our species is contributed by DR. ENGELMANN. 



$ 1 . Stigmas elongated : pod opening regularly around the base by circumcissile deJtis- 

 cence, leaving the partition behind. (Natives of the Old World.) 



1. C. EPILINUM, Weihe. (FLAX DODDER.) Stems very slender ; flowers 

 sessile in dense scattered heads; corolla globular, 5-partcd, cylindrical, scarcely 

 exceeding the broadly ovate acute divisions of the calyx, left surrounding the 

 pod in fruit ; stamens shorter than the limb ; scales short, broad, crenulate, 

 shorter than the globose ovary. In Flax-fields, where it is sometimes very 

 injurious : sparingly introduced with flax-seed into the Northern States. June. 

 (Adv. from Eu.) 



4 2. Stigmas capitate : pods indehiscent, rarely bursting irregularly. ^ 



# Flowers more or less pedicelltd : bracts few and distant : calyx 4 - 5-cleJt. 

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



2. C. teilliiflora, Engelm. Much branched, twining high, pale-colored , 

 flowers at length pcduncled and in rather loose cymes ; tube of the corolla (ven- 

 tricose after flowering) tivice the length of the obtuse spreading lobes and of the ovate 

 obtuse calyx-lobes ; scales ovate, cut-fringed ; stamens shorter than the lobos of 

 the corolla; pod depressed, membranaceous, thin, yellowish. (C. Ccphah'mthi, 

 Engelm.) Swamps, Illinois and westward; on Ccphalanthus and various tall 

 herbs. Flower the narrowest of all our Northern species. 



3. C. Ulllbl'OScl, Bey rich. Flowers pedunclcd in umbel-like cymes ; tube 

 of Hie (mostly 4-clcft) fleshy corolla as long as the ovate acutix/t and minutely crenate 

 erect inflexed lobes and the acute keeled calyx-lobes ; scales minute and few-toothed, 

 appressed ; pod depressed, somewhat umbonate, of a thicker texture, brown, 

 covered or surrounded with the remains of the corolla. (C. Coryli, Engelm.) 

 Prairies and barrens, in rather dry soil, on Hazels, Ccanothus, and other shrubs 

 or herbs ; from W. Virginia and Illinois southward and westward. 



H- *- Corolla bell-shaped, persistent at the base of the ripe pod. 



4. C. arveiisis, Beyrich (in herb. Berlin). Low ; flowers small, &- 

 parted, peduncled in loose umbel-like c^mes ; tube of the corolla included in or 

 attle exceed ng the broad-lobed calyx, shorter than its lanceolate acuminate 





