COLLECTED DESCRIPTIONS OF CUSCUTA. 107 
as the similar but mostly broader and overlapping denticulate lobes and as the shallow campanulate tube of the corolla ; 
filaments about as long as the oval anthers; fringed scales mostly shorter than the tube, sometimes incomplete ; styles 
as long as or shorter than the pointed ovary ; capsule conical, surrounded (not covered) by the withered corolla, mostly 
1-seeded. — C. subinclusa, var. abbreviata, & C. Californica, var. (?) squamigera, Engelm. 1. c. [Tr. St. L. Acad. 1. 
499, 500]. 
Saline marshes, on various Chenopodiaceous plants, especially Salicornia: Bay of San Francisco, 0. Wright, 
Bolander, Kellogg. Also extending to British Columbia (Lyall), and in the interior to Arizona and southern Utah. 
In many respects intermediate between the preceding |C. Californica] and the following species [C. subinclusa] : but dis- 
tinguished from the former by the presence of infrastamineal scales and the larger flowers ; from the latter by the 
less crowded flowers, with shorter, more delicate, and open corolla. 
From THE BoTraniIcAL GAZETTE, Vou. II. 1877. 
A new Cuscuta, new at least to North America, comes now from California. A great wan- [69] 
derer is this C. corymbosa, which nearly forty years ago stirred up the botanists of Europe, and 
the agriculturists not less. This interesting plant has quite a little history of its own. At the period 
indicated, between 1839 and 1843, an unknown Cuscuta made its appearance almost simultaneously 
in different parts of western Europe, and, singularly enough, always in Lucerne fields. In Germany 
it was described as C. suaveolens, C. Hassiaca, C. diaphana, and Engelmannia migrans, until Choisy, 
in DC. Prod., recognizing its American origin, took it for C. corymbosa, R. & P. In my monograph 
of Cuscuta, 1859, I established the identity of the immigrant with the South American C. racemosa, 
Mart., which had been introduced into Europe with the much-vaunted Chilian Ad/a//a, in reality the 
old established European fodder plant, the Lucerne, and which proved very destructive to its nurse- 
plant. After ten or fifteen years the energetic measures of the farmers, together with wet and cool 
summers, in which the seeds did not mature, seem to have eradicated the plant entirely, and as far 
as I am informed, it has not been heard of again in Europe. But now, lo and behold, our wanderer 
makes its appearance in northern California, and, precisely as before in Europe, in Alfalfa fields, 
“proving very injurious.” It has been, without doubt, here also imported from Chili. 
Rev. E. L. Greene, who has found so many new native plants in the Shasta Valley, sends also 
this troublesome newcomer. How long it has been there or whether it has appeared in other parts 
of California, where under the well-sounding name of Alfalfa the Lucerne is frequently cultivated, is 
as yet unknown, nor whether it will establish itself permanently. It may be well to direct the atten- 
tion of the farmers, who cultivate Alfalfa, to this dangerous enemy and to urge them to destroy any 
dodder which may show itself in their fields, before it can spread or mature seeds. C. racemosa, 
Mart., belongs like our common C. Gronovii to the section Clistoyrammica, characterized by two 
styles of unequal length tipped with capitate stigmas and a not-opening (baccate) capsule. Ovary 
and capsule are thickened towards the apex and somewhat pointed ; inflorescence loosely paniculated 
with longish pedicels; flowers 14-2 lines long, of thin texture, tube of corolla deeply campanulate, 
widening upwards, spreading lobes inflexed at the acute tip; scales nearly the length of the tube ; 
capsule commonly enveloped by the corolla. The variety, Chiliana, Eng. Cuse. p. 505, to which this 
form belongs, has larger and more delicate flowers than the original Brazilian type. 
The “new” Cuscuta racemosa, the Alfalfa-Dodder, was after all not new to Prof. Thurber [80] 
and to the readers of the “ American Agriculturist.” By an unpardonable oversight his article 
in the number of December, 1874, of that journal, adorned with a cut, was overlooked not only in 
the notice published in the “ Gazette” of January, but also in the Flora of California, published last 
summer. It seems that the parasite made its appearance in California at least three years ago on 
Luzerne fields, and its nature and dangerous character was recognized by Prof. Thurber and the 
means indicated to eradicate it. The little notice of this plant in the January number of the 
“ Gazette” has elicited the information from California that the parasite is “now well naturalized, 
here (about San Francisco Bay), and is a great pest among the Chili clover.” 
