Cuscuta. CONVOLVULACE.K 535 



3. CUSCUTA, Toiiin. DoDDKiu 

 (Hy Dr. Gkohok, Knoki-mann.) 

 Calyx 5- (sometimes 4-) cleft or parted. Corolla campanulate or short-tubular, 

 the spreading limb 5 - 4-parte(l, between convolute and imbricated in the bud, not 

 plaited. Stamens mostly furnislic<l with a scale-like fringed appendage below their 

 insertion in the throat. Ovary glubosn, 2-cdlcd, 4-ovule(l. Styles in all our species 

 2, distinct. Capsule 1 - 4-see(led, circumscissile (bursting transversely), or mostly 

 baccate. Embryo fdiform, spirally coiled in the (when dry) hard-fleshy albumen, 

 destitute of cotyledons, sometimes furnished at the upper part with a few alter- 

 nate scales (belonging to the plumule), germinating in the soil, but not rooting 

 in it, developing into fdiform and branching annual stems of a yellowish or reddish 

 hue, which become parasitic on the bark of herbs or small shrubs, being attached 

 by means of suckers at the whole surface of contact (the base soon dying away), 

 twining extensively, bearing occasional small scales in the i)Iace of loaves. Flowers 

 small, cymoso or densely chistercd, white or whitish, usually produced Into in the 

 season. — Engolm. in Amor. Jour. Sci. 1842, & Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci. (1859) 

 i. 453. 



A widely distributed genus of nearly 80 species, divided into three subgcnem ; tlie fii-st, Eucus- 

 c!(te(witli distinct styles and elongated stigmas, and circumscissile capsule), indigenous cx.du- 

 Hively to the Old World, although the injurious Flax-Dodder has been introduced with flax-seed 

 into the Now ; tho second and largest, Grammica (with distinct styles and cnpitato stigmas), 

 belonging principally to tho New; tho third and smallest, Momqti'nn. {%x\{]y styles united into 

 one), scattered over the whole globe. Tho Calilbvnian species are all of the section Cli.ifo,jrnvi- 

 mica, having capitate stigmas and a baccate or indehisccnt (;apsule. The following species, 

 natives of Aiizona or Utah, are not unlikely to reach California: — 



C. TENUIKLOKA, EngeliTi. and C. obtusifloua, HBK., both with closed or haccate capsule: 

 C. APPLANATA, Eugclm., C. onoNTOLEPis, Engelm.. and C. umbkllata, HBK., with capsule 

 opening regularly round the base. 



* Capsule (Jepressed-glohosc. 

 1. C. arvensis, Beyrich. Stems cai)illary : flowers small (about a line long), 

 in small umbel-like cymes, i)odicollato : tube of the broad-campantdato coroTla 

 included in tho broadly lubod calyx, as long as or rather shorter than its ovate- 

 lanceolato inflexed-pointed lobes: scales large, broadly oval, deeply fringed: styles 

 shorter than the largo depressed ovary : capsule depressed-globose, girt at tho 

 base by the persistent corolla : seeds 4. — Engelm. in Gray, Man. ed 2 336 

 & ed. 5, 378. ' ' 



Long Valley, Mendocino Co., Kcllo(jg. Not rare from the Mi.hlle Atlantic States to Texas, 

 nut thus tar found only once in California. 



9 



C. Californica, Choisy, and Tlook. ^ Arn. Stems capillary; flowers snnxll 

 or middle-sized, pedicelled in loose, few-flowored cymes : I(d)es of tho calyx acute : 

 lobes of the corolla lanceolate-subulate, as long as or longer than tho shallow cam- 

 panulate tube : filaments mostly as long as the linear-oblong anthers : scales none, 

 or sometimes indicated by rudimentary inverted arches near the base of the tube ': 

 ovary small, mostly depressed, with slender styles; capsule depressed.— DC. Prodr. 

 ix. 457. — Tho extreme forms are : 



Var. breviflora, Engelm. Flowers scarcely more than a line long : ralyx-lobes 

 acuminate, equalling or surpassing tho tube of the corolla: filaments and anthers 

 short : styles as long as the ovary : corolla withering at base of or around the 2-4- 

 seeded capsule. — Engelm. in Trans. St. J.ouis Acafl. Sci. 1. c. 499. 



Var. longiloba, Engelm. 1. c. Flowers longer-pedicelled, U to 2\ lines long: 

 calyx-lobes short, or sometimes long and acuminate and even recurved at tip : lobes 



