CONVOLVULACEAE (CONVOLVULUS FAMILY) 



325 



dies ; if there is such a plant, the 

 parasite quickly twines about it, 

 develops tiny, wart-like suckers 

 at tb.e point of contact, breaks 

 connection with the earth, and 

 thereafter "sponges its living," 

 drawing from the host plant the 

 food assimilated by the green 

 leaves for its own growth. Con- 

 sequently the Dodder needs no 

 leaves and has none, the whole 

 plant being a mere coarse, yel- 

 lowish red thread, branching very 

 freely and the branches behaving 

 as did the original filament, reach- 

 ing out for living support, em- 

 bracing it, and then often parting 

 from the main stalk and becom- 

 ing separate plants ; so that the 

 growth from a single seed may 

 cover a considerable extent of 

 ground, binding the herbage into 

 a tangled mass and sucking out 

 its life. The parasite itself dies 

 at the point where its growth 

 started, when its hosts are killed, 

 but the many spreading branches 

 continue their existence. Even 

 a broken bit of stalk, dropped 

 where it can seize on a host, 

 promptly takes hold and starts 

 a new center. (Fig. 226.) 



The small flowers are whitish 

 or faintly tinged with pink, ses- 

 sile, massed in dense clusters ; 

 calyx five-lobed or occasionally 

 only four-lobed, acute; corolla FIG. 226. - Clover Dodder (Cus- 

 ,. 111 i J -XL cuta Epithymum). X J. Capsule and 

 lobes spreading, bell-shaped, with seed very much en i arge d. 



