CONVOLVULACEAE (CONVOLVULUS FAMILY) 
dies ; if there is such a plant, the 
parasite quickly twines about it, 
develops tiny, wart-like suckers 
at the point of contact, breaks 
connection with the earth, and 
thereafter “sponges its living,” 
drawing from the host plant the 
food assimilated by the green 
leaves for its own growth. Con- 
sequently the Dodder needs no 
leaves and has none, the whole 
plant being a mere coarse, yel- 
lowish red thread, branching very 
freely and the branches behaving 
as did the original filament, reach- 
ing out for living support, em- 
bracing it, and then often parting 
from the main stalk and becom- 
ing separate plants; .so that the 
growth from a single seed may 
cover a considerable extent of 
ground, binding the herbage into 
a tangled mass and sucking out 
its life. The parasite itself dies 
at the point where its growth 
started, when its hosts are killed, 
but the many spreading branches 
continue their existence. Even 
a broken bit of stalk, dropped 
where it can seize on a_ host, 
promptly takes hold and starts 
a new center. (Fig. 226.) 
The small flowers are whitish 
or faintly tinged with pink, ses- 
sile, massed in dense clusters ; 
calyx five-lobed or occasionally 
only four-lobed, acute; corolla 
lobes spreading, bell-shaped, with 
325 
Fie. 226.— Clover Dodder (Cus- 
cuta Epithymum). x 4. 
seed very much enlarged. 
Capsule and 
