BORAGINACEiE 219 



CONVOLVULACE^ 



Twining or prostrate herbs, with alternate leaves, Or leafless 

 and parasitical \Cuscuta). Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals often very unequal. 

 Corolla usually campanulate, with 4 or 5 lobes or nearly entire. 

 Stamens 4 or 5, attached near the base of the corolla. Partitions 

 of the capsule very thin. 



The family is not represented in Alpine regions properly so-called, 

 but in the lower mountains of Europe Cuscuta or Dodder is fre- 

 quently seen. 



Cuscuta L. Dodder. 



Cuscuta Efithymum Murray. (Plate X.) Lesser Dodder. 



An annual parasitical, leafless plant, with twining, thread-like 

 reddish stems, which attach themselves to Thyme, Heath, Gorse, 

 and other shrubby plants by means of minute suckers. The heads 

 of flowers are small, globular, and compact, the flowers themselves 

 being very small, white or pale pink, and the calyx still smaller. 

 Corolla-lobes pointed, spreading, and about as long as the tube. 

 Capsule globular, with 4 seeds in 2 cells. 



Parasitical upon various plants in sunny places in the plains and 

 Alps to at least 6000 feet. July to October. 



Distribution. — In Europe from Denmark southward, N. Africa, 

 W. Asia. British. 



Dodder was observed by the author during the hot summer of 

 1911 in unusual abundance in the Pennine Alps and upon a variety 

 of plants, such as Euphorbia Cyparissias, Carduus defloratus, and 

 Teucrium montanum. He also found it actually parasitical upon 

 two fronds of Polypodium Robertianum, which is perhaps the first 

 record of any kind of Cuscuta upon a fern ;i though, according to 

 Prillieux, Rye-grass has been attacked by C. Epithymum. It is 

 also occasionally found on Lotus corniculatus, Lavender, and other 

 Labiates, Hypericum and Achillea millefolium. When Dodder grows 

 on Clover, or Lucerne, which it often does in the sub-Alps, as in 

 England, the name C. Trifolii Bab. is given to the variety. It differs 

 from the type in its shorter distant scales. Several other species of 

 Cuscuta are occasionally found in the lower mountains of Southern 

 Europe, but they are difficult to determine, and it is hardly within 

 the scope of this book to attempt to describe them here. 



BORAGINACE^ 



Herbs usually rough with coarse hairs. Leaves alternate, simple, 



and usually entire. Flowers in i-sided spikes or racemes, rolled 



back when young, and usually forked. Calyx of 5 teeth. Corona 



regular, or slightly irregular, monopetalous, with a 5-cleft limb. 



^ Journal of Botany, December, 191 1. 



