THE "CLOVER DODDEE." 



123 



thousand pieces, each piece will immediately go on grow- 

 ing as if nothing had happened to injure it. Tearing the 

 "dodder" to pieces, then, by harrowing or raking, so 

 far from assisting to extirpate it, only multiplies the 

 mischief instead of arresting it. The accompanying 

 woodcut, showing the early growth of the dodder plant, 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 



and its mode of attaching itself to the plant on which 

 it feeds, is taken from Professor Buckman's paper on 

 the subject in the Agricultural Gazette. 1 Here we 

 see the plant (fig. 3) just elevated above the soil, 

 bearing the testa or seed-covering on its apex : its next 

 state (fig. 2) is more advanced in growth; it has now 

 become sufficiently developed to clasp a plant and wind 

 itself round the stem. In four or five days more, if again 

 examined, it will be seen, as in fig. 3, to have coiled itself 

 in three or four turns tightly round its victim, during 



1 Agri. Gaz., 1859, p. 746. 



