CHAPTER IV 

 PHANEROGAMIC PARASITES 



In point of species the mistletoes form the only numerous group 

 of parasitic flowering plants in these islands, but in abundance the 

 first place is easily held by the love-vine, which occurs in great 

 masses in some stretches of uncultivated country, and is fre- 

 quently highly conspicuous on roadside trees and shrubs. In 

 neither case does the prevalence of these plants make more than a 

 narrow contact with plant industries. 



Love Vine : Vermicelle. 



The plant commonly known by these names is Cuscuta 

 Americana L. of the order Convolvulaceae, which is common 

 in all the principal islands save Barbados, where it is distributed 

 rather scantily. It is found as a rule on waste land, on wayside 

 shrubs and trees, and on hedges or scattered bushes among 

 gardens or small holdings. The writer has never seen it attacking 

 arable cultivations of any description. It causes annoyance 

 from its infestation and disfigurement of hedges, especially of 

 hibiscus ; and occasionally gets into cultivated trees and bushes. 



The plant is without leaves, and forms when well developed 

 large confused masses of slender flexible stems, bright golden 

 yellow in colour. It is completely parasitic. Where it comes in 

 contact with twigs in a suitable condition it twines around them 

 and becomes firmly attached by sucker-like haustoria which 

 make connection with the tissues and put the parasite into com- 

 munication with the food supplies of the host. Flowers in small 

 clusters are freely produced and give rise to numerous seeds. 

 The plant is an annual one, and sooner or later turns brown and 

 dries up. The seeds, which are tenacious of life, germinate in the 

 soil and produce a filament, the free end of which circles round in 

 search of a suitable stem, and, when this is found, coils round it 

 and loses its connection with the ground. The plant is also 

 freely reproduced from fragments of its stems when these find 

 themselves in an appropriate situation, and transference of this 

 kind is sometimes due to malicious persons or to children. 



In several islands the destruction of love- vine is enjoined 

 by ordinance on owners or occupiers of land, but eradication is 

 troublesome to achieve, and the regulations in consequence are 

 difhcult to enforce. The common method is to cut down or 



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