64 MONOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CUSCUTINE&. 
(2.) LEPIDANCHE,! N. Gen. 
— consisting of many imbricated scales, persistent ; corolla tubular, 5-cleft ; styles two; capsule 2-celled, 
2-se 
alt similar to Cuscuta when young, but different in appearance when in flower or fruit. The stem which 
connects the different clusters of flowers having then disappeared, the latter only remain, consisting of innumerable 
crowded sessile flowers and scarious scales, spirally and most tightly coiled (with one or several turns) around the 
stems of the supporting plant, which at a distance appears as if a rope were twisted round it. The flowers are so 
crowded that many are abortive, and as it were strangled, presenting nothing but a bunch of scales, and others, which 
are apparently perfect, do not mature seed 
The principal difference between this genus and Cuscuta consists in the calyx, which is not monosepalous, but is 
composed of numerous imbricated scales ; of which the two or five exterior, being much smaller, may be considered as 
bracts ; while the ten inner, which are nearly equal in size and shape, crenulate, and with reflexed or squarrose 
summits appear to constitute the proper calyx. The corolla and stamens, with their scales, are entirely i to the 
corresponding organs in Cuscuta: so is the ovary; but the unequal styles are generally longer in proport 
and the stylopodium is as large as the ovary proper, or even larger. The ovary is 2-celled and La talitan [344] 
but I have never seen more than two seeds, separated by the incomplete dissepiment ; and frequently only a 
single seed ripens. 
1. LeprpaNcHE ComposiTaRuM: stem low, branching; flowers closely sessile, conglomerate, 5-parted ; tube 
of the corolla nearly cylindrical, longer than the squarrose imbricated calyx, which consists of ten to fifteen Beet 
twice as long as the oblong obtuse spreading or reflexed lobes of the corolla ; stamens equal to the limb, exserted ; 
scales pinnatifidly laciniate, convergent, covering the ovary ; styles twice as long as the ovary with the stylopodium ; 
capsule globose, enveloped by the scales of the calyx, crowned by the sey lignin and styles, and covered by the 
remains of the corolla 
Var. a. Sotipaarnts : flowers smaller ; lobes of the limb reflexed ; stylopodium half as large as the ovary. 
Var. 8. Heiantut: flowers larger ; lobes of the limb cae Si ; Scales of the filaments united with one another 
forming a 5-lobed crown in the tube ; stylopodium larger than the 
This singular plant appears to be peculiar to the Western ane I have observed it since 1833 in wet prairies 
around St. Louis,? on Solidago (also on Vernonia, Ch. Geyer), and Dr. Clapp has found it on Silphium at weed 
— Indiana ; the second variety I have gathered on Helianthus since 1838 in similar localities ; flowering 
August and September, These varieties may ae aoeake species, but for the present I am unable to distinguish 
them by more important characters than those given 
The flowers are always 5-parted ; the tube is a exactly cylindrical, but a little wider at the mouth than at 
the base, rather obconic. The styles are longer than in any of our Cuscute, and almost always unequal ; they are 
inserted on a distinct stylopodium, which is larger than in any Cuscuta. The stigma is capitate, as in all American 
Cuscutee. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. _ [Reproduced on p. 65.] 
Figs. 1-6. Cuscuta CePHALANTHI. 1. A tetramerous; 2, a pentamerous flower. 3. Corolla laid open. 4. The 
ovary. 5. Vertical section of a half-grown capsule. 6. Capsule invested by the remains of the 
la. 
corol 
Figs. 7-11. C.Coryur. 7. A flower. 8. Corolla laid open. 9. Ovary and styles. 10. Same of var. 8. 11. Cap- 
le invested by the remains of the corolla. 
Figs. 12-16. C. vuLatvaga. 12-14, Flowers. 15. Corolla laid open. 16. Ovary. 
Figs. 17-21. C. Saururi. 17. The flower. 18. Corolla laid open, with the inflexed scales. 19. Ovary. 20. Vertical 
section of the half-grown capsule. 21. Mature capsule. 
ig 22-24. C. roses 22. ane wer, 23. Corolla laid open. 24. Ovary. 
25. C. VeRRucosa. Flowe 
ri 26~29. C. esomncct 26. “awiee 27. Corolla laid open. 28. Ovary. 29. Capsule. 
Figs. 30-35. LeprpaANcHE CoMpPosiTaRUM. 30, deed : var.a. 31. Flower of var. 8. 32. Corolla of B. laid open. 
33. Ovary and styles of var. a. 34. Same of 8. 35. Capsule. 
N.B. The flower represented in fig. 1 is a line in Na. all the others are enlarged in the same proportion. 
1 From Xerls, a scale, and dyxew, to strangle : a scaly plant, ares those on which it grows. 
? This is manifestly the Cuscuta Americana (from St. Louis) of Hooker's account of Drummond’s collections, in the 
Companion to the Botanical Magazine, 1. p. 173; of which it is remarked that “some of the specimens seem to have all the 
flowers abortive and turned into scales, which are excessively crowded, and forma dense wreath of a pale straw-color around 
the branch of some shrub,” 
