266 CONVOLVULACE.E. (CONVOLVULUS FAMILY,) 



to 3-toothed; some pedate, having narrowly 2 to 3-cleft lateral lobes or divis- 

 ions ; some more coarsely 3 to 5-parted, with lobes entire or coarsely sinuate- 

 dentate : peduncles 1 to 2-flowered, as long as the leaf : corolla white or tinged 

 with rose, i inch long, the angles salient-acuminate. — Includes C. lobatus, 

 Eng. & Gray. S. Colorado and Arkansas to Texas and Arizona. 



3. EVOLVULUS, L. 



Low and small rather suffrutescent plants, with erect or diffuse or prostrate 

 (never twining) stems, entire leaves, one to few-flowered peduncles, and small 

 purple or blue almost rotate corolla. Our species has both sides of the leaves, 

 stems, and calyx densely silky-villous. 



1. E. argenteus, Pursh. Stems numerous from a lignescent base, rather 

 stout and rigid, erect or ascending, a span or so high, very leafy : dense pubes- 

 cence sometimes silvery-canescent, usually fulvous or ferruginous : leaves from 

 »patulate and obtuse to linear-lanceolate and acute: pedicels very short. — 

 Plains and prairies, from Nebraska to Wyoming, Colorado, and southward. 



4. CUSCUTA, Tourn. Dodder. 



Flowers 5- (rarely 4-) merous : calyx cleft or parted : corolla globular-urn 

 shaped, bell-shaped, or somewhat tubular : stamens inserted in the throat of 

 the corolla above as many scale-like lacerate appendages: ovary globular, 

 2-celled, 4-ovuled : styles (in ours) distinct and terminated by peltate-capitate 

 stigmas : embryo thread-shaped, spirally coiled, destitute of cotyledons. — 

 Leafless thread-like stems yellowish or reddish in color, bearing a few minute 

 scales instead of leaves : flowers small, cymose-clustered, mostly white. 



* Capsule indehiscent. 

 1- Calyx gamosepalous. 

 ■m. Ovary and capsule depressed-globose: flowers in dense or globular clusters: 

 corolla with a short and wide tube, in age remaining at the base of the capsule : 

 styles mostly shorter than the ovary. 



1. C. arvensis, Beyrich. Stems pale and slender, low : flowers scarcely 

 a line long : calyx-lobes obtuse, mostly very broad : those of the corolla acu- 

 minate, longer than the tube, with inflexed points : scales large, deeply fringed. 

 — In rather dry soil, on various low plants, across the continent. The var. 

 pentagona, found in Colorado, has a large and angled calyx. 



*+ ++ Ovary and capsule pointed ; the latter enveloped or capped by the marces- 



cent corolla : flowers in paniculate cymes. 



= Acute tips of corolla-lobes inflexed or corniculate. 



2. C. decora, Choisy. Stems coarse: flowers fleshy and more or less 

 papillose : lobes of the calyx triangular, acute : those of the broadly cam- 

 panulate corolla ovate-lanceolate, minutely crenulate, spreading : scales large, 

 deeply frimjed : capsule enveloped by the remains of the corolla. 



Var. pulcherrima, Engelm. A larger form, with coarse stems, and 

 conspicuous flowers lj to 2J lines long and wide: anthers and stigmas vellow or 

 deep purple. — On herbs and low shrubs in wet prairies, principally Legumi 



