CLASS Y. ORDER II.] CUSCUTA. 341 



head. Floivers small, while, or slightly tinged with piuk. Calyx of 

 one piece, persistent, deeply five-cleft in Ijur or five lanceolate seg- 

 ments, somewhat fleshy at the base. Corolla bell-shaped, the limb of 

 four or five ovate-lanceolate segments, about as long as the tube, the 

 point more or less elongated. Stamens four or five, with awl-shaped 

 filaments arising from the top of the tube between the segments of the 

 limb, each having at its base an ovate scale, with a fringed icargiu 

 closing over the gerraen. Anther small, yellow, ovate, cleft at the 

 base. Germen roundish, superior, crowned by the two erect simple 

 styles, with red stigmas. Capsule small, roundish, surrounded by the 

 withered calyx and corolla, two celled, each cell single seeded, bursting 

 transversely at the base. Seed small, roundish, flat, pale brown. 



Habitat. — On furze, heath, broom, nettles, clover, thyme, &c. In 

 various parts of England and Scotland. 



Annual ; flowering from July to August. 



This is readily distinguished from the following, by its much more 

 slender darker red stems, smaller clusters of flowers, the narrower seg- 

 ments of the calyx and corolla, and especially the fringed scale at the 

 base of the stamens. We have found it on a great variety of plants, 

 but more especially the heath, broom, and furze, in dry heathy situa- 

 tions, over which it spreads its slender arms, and seems indiscriminate 

 in its selection of the species of plants which it converts to its use ; for 

 it may not unfrequently be found deriving support from five or six 

 diflFerent plants at the same time, spreading over a surface of three or 

 four feet, twisting and entangling in a confused looking manner. 

 It is much more frequent on the Continent than with us, and especially 

 in Portugal ; We have seen it almost covering the herbage on the side of 

 banks near the sea for a considerable distance. 



2. C. Europcea, Linn. (Fig. 410.) greater Dodder. Stem slender, 

 branched; flowers sessile, in crowded heads; limb of the corolla in 

 four or five ovate acute segments, about as long as the tube, without 

 scales at the base of the stamens ; stigmas filiform. 



English Botany, t. 378. — English Flora, p. 24. — Hooker in Flora 

 Lond. t. 67.- British Flora, vol. i. p. 126. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 168. 



Root small, fibrous. Stem much stouter than the last, pale green, 

 or pink, much branched and entangled, twisting itself about the other 

 plant, three or four feet high, round and smooth, putting out indis- 

 criminately at any part of the stem papillse, round or ovate at the 

 extremity, with a narrow fringed border around a central radical, by 

 which it attaches itself to other plants, and derives its nourishment. 

 Leaves none. Inflorescence round sessile heads, the size of a hazel 

 nut, of numerous white flowers. Calyx of one piece, persistent, sessile, 

 the base fleshy, having in the centre a green pedicle, which supports 

 the germen and corolla, the limb of four or five ovate acute pegmenfs. 



