292 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



CuscuTA (Dodder) 



This curious genus is annual, leafless, and parasitic, 

 with, thread-like, delicate, pinkish, twining stems, bearing 

 clusters of small homogamous flowers, with concealed 

 honey, which is secreted by the base of the ovary. They 

 are often cleistogamous. The seeds germinate in the 

 soil, developing a slender root and thread-like stem, but 

 no cotyledons. When, as a result of its circumnuta- 

 tion, the stem has come in contact with its future host, 

 it curls round it like a tendril and develops suckers, 

 which penetrate to the vascular tissue of the host- 

 plant. The root then withers, and the Dodder is 

 henceforth a parasite. There are three British species. 

 In C. europcea and C. Epilinum the corolla-lobes are 

 short and broad — the latter grows only on flax, and is 

 not a true native ; in C. Epithymum the corolla-lobes 

 are spreading and pointed. 



0. Epithymum.^This species grows on heath, thyme, 

 and other small shrubs. The flower parts are generally 

 in fives, but sometimes in fours, threes or even twos. 

 The honey is protected by small scales growing from the 

 inside of the corolla. The stigma and anthers ripen 

 simultaneously, and an insect would naturally touch the 

 stigma on one side and the anthers on the other. 



C. europsea resembles C. Epithymum in the general 

 arrangement, but is larger. 



BOEAGINE^ 



Generally rough, with coarse hairs. Nectar is gener- 

 ally secreted at the base of the ovary, and often protected 

 by scales at the summit of the corolla-tube. The flowers 

 are especially adapted for and visited by bees, and are 

 often bent in a manner well adapted to suit the proboscis. 

 Blue is the predominant colour. 



