NIGHTSHADE FAMILT. 265 



7. CUSCUTA, DODDEE. (Old name, of uncertain derivation.) Plants 

 resemble threads of yam, yellowish or reddish, spreading over herbs and low 

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

 juices. Flowers small, mostly white, clustered. 



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

 leaving the partition behind. Natives of Europe : Ji. 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-parted. ® 



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

 country, mostly in rick or low ground : fi. summer and autumn. (T) 



* Flowers in rather loose clusters, mostly short-pedicelted, the scaly bracts few and 



scattered : calyx 4 - 5-cle/t. 

 ■fr- Corolla with cylindrical tube, in fruit covering the top of the pod. 



C. tenuifldra. On 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. infl^xa. On shrubs and tall herbs in prairies and barrens "W. & S. : 

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

 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. arv^nsis. On Jow herbs, in fields and barrens i'rora New York to 111. 

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

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



C. chloroc4rpa. 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 ; pod large, depressed, greenish-yellow. 



C Gronbvii. The commonest E. & W. and tlie 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 



close matted coils, when old resembling pieces of rope twisted 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. C0mp4cta. On shrubs, from N. York S. & W. : bracts (3-5) and 

 sepals round and appressed; tube of corolla cylindrical. 



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

 "W. & S. W. : the numerous oblong scarious bracts closely imbricated with 

 recurving tips ; sepals similar, shorter than the cy lindraceous tube of the corolla. 



84. SOLANACE^ffil, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



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

 monly narcotic-poisonous, 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-seeded placentae 

 in the axis. The seeds have a slender usually curved embryo in 

 fleshy albumen. (Lessons, p. 15, fig. 34, 35.) The order runs on 

 the one hand into Scrophulariacese, which a few 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 arourlJ a common style. 



