xix.] CLOVER DODDER. 117 



they fix upon a great variety of plants in addition to 

 field clovers and lucerne. The best known of these host 

 plants are flax, thyme, broom, heath, furze, cabbages, 

 nettles, hops, cranberry, rock-rose, centaury, scabious 

 grass, bracken, yellow -rattle, eyebright, bastard toad-flax, 

 yellow bedstraw, camomile, sow thistles, tomatoes, and 

 even the vine. 



It is extremely common to find seeds of dodder amongst 

 impure clover seeds imported from the Continent. In 

 some instances it is easy to sift dodder away from the 

 larger-seeded varieties of clover, and we know that most 

 seed-merchants are very particular in this respect. In 

 other instances the dodder and clover seeds approach each 

 other so nearly in size that sifting one from the other is 

 impossible, and the No. 17 sifter becomes quite useless. 



J^ A jf;> 



mm 



X 5 



FIG. 48. 



Seeds of Red Clover, Yellow Trefoil, Dutch Clover, and Clover Dodder. 

 Enlarged 5 diameters^ 



For the purpose of comparison, two seeds of perennial red 

 clover are illustrated at Fig. 48, A ; at B the seeds of 

 yellow trefoil ; at C of white Dutch clover ; and at D 

 the seeds of clover dodder, all to the same scale, viz. five 

 times the size of nature. All clovers in cultivation vary 

 in size between the limits shown by A and C in Fig. 48. 

 The examples for measurement were kindly forwarded by 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Co. of Sleaford, Messrs. Sutton and 

 Sons of Eeading, and Messrs. Edward Webb and Sons of 

 Wordsley, Stourbridge. The dodder seeds were sifted out 

 of impure foreign importations. In a pound of average 

 clover there are 250,000 seeds. 



A dodder seed is brown, dull, and minutely granular 

 outside when seen with the aid of a strong lens, whereas 



