White and Greenish 



Like tangled yellow yarn wound spirally about the herbage 

 and shrubbery in moist thickets, the dodder grows, its beautiful 

 bright thread's plentifully studded with small tlowers tightly 

 bunched. Try to loosen its hold on the support it is climbing up, 

 and the secret of its guilt is out at once; for no honest vine is 

 this, but a parasite, a degenerate of the lowest type, with numer- 

 ous sharp suckers (haustoria) penetrating the hark of its victim, 

 and spreading in the softer tissues beneath to steal all their nour- 

 ishment. So firmly are these suckers attached, that the golden 

 thread-like stem will break before they can be torn from their 

 hold. 



Not a leaf now remains on the vine to tell of virtue in its 

 remote ancestors ; the absence of green matter (chlorophyll) tes- 

 tifies to dishonest methods of gaining a living (see Indian Pipe, 

 p. 233); not even a root is left after the seedling is old enough to 

 twine about its hard-working, respectable neighbors. Starting 

 out in life with apparently the best intentions, suddenly the tender 

 young twiner develops an appetite for strong drink and murder 

 combined, such as would terrify any budding criminal in Five 

 Points or Seven Dials ! No sooner has it laid hold of its victim 

 and tapped it, than the now useless root and lower portion wither 

 away, leaving the dodder in mid-air, without any connection with 

 the soil below, but abundantly nourished with juices already stored 

 up, and even assimilated, at its host's expense. By rapidly length- 

 ening the cells on the outer side of its stem more than on the inner 

 side, the former becomes convex, the latter concave ; that is to 

 say, a section of spiral is formed by the new shoot, which, twining 

 upward, devitalizes its benefactor as it goes. Abundant, globular 

 seed-vessels, which develop rapidly, while the blossoming con- 

 tinues unabated, soon sink into the soft soil to begin their piratical 

 careers close beside the criminals which bore them ; or better still, 

 from their point of view, float down .stream to found new colonies 

 afar. When the beautiful jewel-weed — a conspicuous sufferer — 

 is hung about with dodder, one must be grateful for at least such 

 symphony of yellows. 



Virginia Water-leaf 



{HydrophylluDi Virgin tcu in) Water-leaf family 



Flowers — White or purplish tinged, in a single or forking cluster 

 on a long peduncle. Calyx deeply s-parted, the spreading 

 segments very narrow, bristly hairy. Corolla erect, bell- 

 shaped, deeply s-lobed ; s protruding stamens, with soft 

 hairs about their middle ; 2 styles united to almost the sum- 

 mit. Stem: Slender, rather weak, 1 to 3 ft. long, leafy, 

 sparingly branched, from a scaly rootstock. Leaves: Alter- 



247 



