K;GIITSnAI)E FAMILY. 265 



7. Cti'SCUTA, DODDER. (Old nnme, of uncertain derivation.) Plants 

 resemble threads of yarn, yellowish or rcdilish, spreading over herbs and low 

 bushes, coiling around their branches, which they adhere to and rob of their 

 juices. Flow'ers small, mostly white, clustered. 



§ 1. Stigmas slender ; pod opening by a transverse division all round near the base, 

 leaving tlie partition bthind. Nutlv. s of Europe : fl. early summer. 



C. Epilinum, Flax Dodder. Growing on flax, which it injures ; occa- 

 sionally found in our flax-fields ; flowers globular, in scattered heads ; corolla 

 5-j)arted. ® 



§ 2. Stigmas capitate: pods bursting imgularly if at all: wild species of the 



country, mostly in rich or low ground : fl. summer and autumn. (T) 

 » Flowers in rather loose clusters, mostly short-pedicelled, the scaly brcucts few and 

 scattered : calyx 4 - 5-cleft. 

 1- Corolla vrith cylindrical tube, in fruit covering the- top of the pod. 

 C. tenuifldra. 0" shrubs and tall herbs from N. Jersey W. & S., in 

 swamps : pale ; tube of the corolla twice the length of its ovate acute spreading 

 lobes and of the ovate blunt calyx-lobes. 



C. inflexa. On shi-ubs and tall herbs in prairies and, barrens W. ^ S. : 

 corolla fleshy, mostly 4-cleft, its tube no longer than the ovate acutish crenulatc 

 erect or inflexed lobes of the corolla and the acute keeled calyx-lobes. 



C. decora. Wet prairies S. W. : with larger flowers, the corolla broadly 

 bell-shaped, its 5 lobes lance-ovate and acute. 



+-•>- Corolla bell-shaped, remaining at the base of the ripe pod. 



C. arv6nsis. On low herbs, in fields and barrens froiji New York to III. 

 & S. W. ; flowers earliest (.Tune, July) and smallest ; tube of corolla shorter than 

 its 5 lanceolate pointed spreading lobes, much longer than the stamens. 



C. chloroc&rpa. On low herbs, in wet soil, from Delaware W. & S.W. : 

 orange-colored ; open bell-shaped corolla with lobes about the length of the 

 mostly 4 acute lobes and the stamens ; j)od large, depressed, greenish-yellow. 



C. Gronbvii. The commonest E. & W. and the only one N. E. ; on coarse 

 herbs and low shrubs in wet places ; bell-shaped corolla with tube usually 

 longer .than' its 5 (rarely 4) ovate blunt spreading lobes ; its internal scales 

 large and copiously fringed. 



* * Flowers sessile in compact mostly continuous clusters, making large bunches or 

 chise Tnatted coils, when old resembling pieces of rope ttvisted around the stems 

 of coarse herbs or shrubs: calyx of separate sepals surrounded ^by similar 

 crowded bracts : remains of the corolla borne on the top of the ripe pod. 



C. eomp^eta. On shrubs, from if. York S. & W. : bracts (3-5) and 

 sepals round and appressed ; tube of corolla cylindrical. 



C. glomerS,ta. On Golden rods and other coarse Compositse, from Ohio 

 Tf. & S. W. : the numerous .oblong scarions bracts closely imbricated with 

 recuning tips ; sepals similar, shorter than the cyJindraceous tube of the corollii. 



84. SOLANACEiE, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



Plants with rank-scented herbage (this and the fruit more com- 

 monly narcotic-poitionous, colorless juice), alternate leaves (but apt 

 to be in pairs and unequal), regular flowers with the parts usually 

 in fives, but the ovary mostly 2-celled, the many-.?eeded placenta) 

 in the axis. The feeds have a slender u.-ually curved embryo in 

 fleshy albumen.. (L",ssons, p. 15, "fig. 84, 35.) The order runs on 

 the one hand into Scrophulariacese, which a tew species approach 

 in a somewhat irregular corolla, but their stamens are as many as 

 the lobes. On the other hand the Nolana group is appended, which 

 differs from all in its separate ovaries around a common style. 



