A PARASITIC PLANT. 225 



forms a broad cultivated bottom field. The sur- 

 face of the steep slope which on this side leads 

 up to the terrace where my "rag-house" stands 

 is thickly studded with elm, soft maple, butter- 

 nut, walnut, haekberry, sycamore and other 

 trees, all of second growth. Over many of them 

 wild grapes and Virginia creeper clamber and 

 form dense leafy coverts. The earth beneath this 

 shade is but thinly clothed with weeds and is 

 productive of beetles and larvae of many in- 

 sects. Soft and easily scratched, it is a favorite 

 hunting place of those ground frequenting birds, 

 the towhee, the wood thrush and the robin. 



On the border of the bottom field on the op- 

 posite side of the creek are young soft maples 

 and willows in profusion, with here and there a 

 larger elm or haekberry protruding from their 

 midst. The dodder 88 is now in the rich yellow 

 of its prime, covering large clumps of the water- 

 willow close into shore and gleaming in the sun- 

 light like some great mass of gold dropped down 

 along the lowest level where the placid waters 

 flow. 



Most interesting of our parasitic plants this 

 dodder a parasite by suicide. It springs from 

 a seed which furnishes it nourisment until it 

 finds some suitable host around which to. coil. 

 In coiling it contracts and so pulls itself up by 



88 Cuscuta gronovii Willd. 

 1.5-B28 



