222 CONVOLVULACE^. Cuscuta. 



— Willd. Rel. ex Roera. & Sch. vi. 205; Choisy, Cusc. t. 4, fig. 1; Engelm. Cusc. 507, & in 

 Gray, Man. ed. 5, 379. C. Americana, L. Spec. i. 124, as to pi. Gronov. Virg. C. vulgivaga, 

 Engelm. in Am. Jour. Sci. xliii. 338, t. 6, fig. 12-16. C. umbrosa, Beyrich, ex Hook. Fl. ii. 78. 



Wet shady places, Canada to Iowa and south to Florida and Texas ; the commonest 



and most diffused Atlantic species. Flowers sometimes 4-merous (from less than a line to 

 2 lines long, usually about 1^ lines) : calyx usually thick and warty, and corolla glandular- 

 dotted, very variable in size and compactness of clusters (sometimes 2 inches thick), and 

 size of capsule (mostly 2 lines, sometimes 3 lines in diameter). 



Var. latiflora, Engelm. 1. c, is a form with flowers of more delicate texture, and 

 shorter tube and longer lobes to the corolla. — C. Saururi, Engel,m. in Am. Jour. Sci. 1. c. 

 fig. 17-21. — Common northward. 



Var. calyptrata, Engelm. 1. c, distinguished by the corolla eventually capping 

 the capsule. — Louisiana and Texas. 



Var. curta, Engelm. 1. c., perhaps a distinct species, representing C. Gronovii west 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and imperfectly known, has smaller flowers, with broad lobes of 

 the corolla and calyx half the length of its tube, very short bifid scales, and styles much 

 shorter than the ovary. — C. umbrosa, Hook. 1. c, in part. 

 C. rostrata, Shuttleworth. Similar to the preceding : flowers larger (2 or 3 lines 

 long), more delicate and whiter: lobes of the corolla and calyx shorter than its tube: 

 slender styles longer : ovary bottle-shaped : capsule long-pointed. — Engelm. in Bost. Jour. 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. v. 225, Cusc. 508; & Gray, Man. ed. 5, 379. — Shady valleys in the AUe- 

 ghanies, from Maryland and Virginia southward, on tall herbs, rarely on shrubs. 



,,, ^_ Calj'x of 5 distinct and largely overlapping sepals, surrounded by 2 to 5 or more similar 

 bracts: styles capillary, scales of coVoUa large and deeply fringed: capsule mostly 1-seeded, 

 capped by the marcescent corolla. 



++ Flowers on bracteolate pedicels, in loose panicles. 

 C. CUSpidata, Engelm. Stems slender: flowers (1^ to 2i lines long) thin, membra- 

 naceous when dry : bracts and sepals ovate-orbicular and oblong lobes of the corolla cuspi- 

 date or mucronate, rarely obtuse, shorter than the cylindrical tube : styles many times 

 longer than the ovary, at length exserted. — Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. Soc. v. 224, & Cusc. 1. c. 

 "Wet or dry prau'ies, on Ambrosia, Iva, some Leguminosa, &c., Texas to Nebraska, occa- 

 sionally straying down the Missouri as far as St. Louis (H. Eggerl). The northern form has 

 laxer inflorescence and fewer bracts under the calyx. 



++ ++ Flowers closely sessile in densely compact clusters. 

 = Bracts and sepals concave and appressed. 

 C. squamata, Engelm. Orange-colored stems slender: glomerules few-flowered, 

 often contiguous : flowers white, membranaceous when dry (2^ to 3 lines long), cuspi- 

 date or obtuse sepals and lanceolate acute lobes of the corolla, both shorter than the 

 cylindrical upwardly widening tube : styles many times longer than ovary. — Cusc. 510. 

 — W.Texas and New Mexico. Common in the bottomlands on the Rio Grande from El 

 Paso to Presidio del Norte. — Similar to the last, but the larger and whiter flowers are 

 closely sessile. 

 C. compacta, JUSS. Stems coarse : flowers (nearly 2 lines long) at length in continuous 

 and often very thick clusters : orbicular bracts and sepals crenulate, nearly equalling or 

 shorter, and ovate-oblong lobes much shorter than the cylindrical tube of the corolla : 

 styles little longer than the ovary. — Choisy, Cusc. t. 4, fig. 2, & in DC. Prodr. ix. 458; 

 Engelm. 1. c. C. remoti flora & C.fridicitm, Bertol, Misc. x. 29. — Canada to Alabama along 

 and west of the Alleghany Mountains, west to Missouri and Texas, in damp woods, almost 

 always on shrubs. The original C. compacta of Jussieu's herbarium is a slender form, with 

 smaller flowers and more exserted corolla : it is found from N. New York southward along 

 the Alleghanies. The var. adpressa, Engelm. Cusc. 511 (Lepidanche adpressa, Engelm. in 

 Am. Jour. Sci. xlv. 77, and probably C. acaulis, Raf. Ann. Nat. 1820, 13), is the common 

 form westward. 



= = Bracts (8 to 15) and sepals with recurved-spreading and crenate tips. 

 C. glomerata, Choisy. Stems coarse, orange-colored, soon withering away, leaving 

 'dense flower-clusters closely encircling in rope-like masses the stems of the foster plant : 

 sepals nearly equalling and its oblong obtuse lobes much shorter than the cylindrical up- 

 wardly widening tube of the corolla: styles several times longer than the ovary. — Cusc. 



